


We Are Expendable

by AngeliqueBelrose



Category: The Expendables (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Family, Father-Daughter Relationship, Friendship, Gen, Guilt, Kidnapping, Mild Language, New Beginnings, Regret, Revenge, Trust, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-16
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-04-04 17:32:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 51,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4146591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngeliqueBelrose/pseuds/AngeliqueBelrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For years now, Barney Ross has been Expendable. It's not a lifestyle for everyone, and he remembers each loss as if it happened only the day before. So when a new threat emerges and aims to destroy the one thing he has never truly had, his team have to kick it into high gear to save him from being completely destroyed. Because if this goes south, they might never get him back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Demons of the Past

> Another successful mission had come to an end. The tension that had once existed between the newer and older members of the team was no longer an issue as they sat around the bar together in their more casual clothes, each with their own drink in hand to toast their good fortune. Together they recounted some of the encounters that they had shared over the last several months, laughing as if they had all the time in the world to just sit and drink. There was the occasional punch in the arm or clap on the back, but it was all good-natured fun as far as he could see.

> There had been only a few injuries this time around, a few cuts and bruises that would heal if they were given a little time. Christmas sported a bandage around his left bicep from the blade of a knife that he had not been able to avoid in the fray, while Barney did his best to rest the hand that bore a few broken bones at the knuckles. Despite Doc's advice that he seek professional medical attention for it the old man had stubbornly refused to spend any more time in a hospital than he recently had, waving off the concern with his good hand. It had been wrapped tightly in a tensor bandage to serve as a reminder that he shouldn't be using it and rested now against the top of the bar, where his right hand wrapped itself firmly around the bottle of beer that the bartender placed in front of him.
> 
> Dark eyes scanned the length of the bar as he took in the faces of everyone on his team, noting the changes that he was beginning to see in all of their bodies. While the younger ones still maintained their vigor and youthfulness, some of the older guys seemed to have shed a few years from their own bodies as well. There was a glow throughout the room that Barney hadn't seen in years, for the hardships of the job and the feeling of having blood on their hands had not yet sunk into the minds of Smilee, Luna and the others. They did not yet have the regrets that he wore upon his soul when he awoke each morning, and he prayed that it would still be a long while before they were forced to carry that burden with them.
> 
> "What's on your mind?"
> 
> Barney cast his glance over at Lee as he sat himself down on the bar stool beside him, having felt the familiar hand on his shoulder that always caught his attention before Lee even spoke. "Just thinkin'," he said with a bit of a shrug, turning his attention back to the rest of the team again. "Wonderin' if maybe they'll come to regret becoming Expendable."
> 
> Lee Christmas took a swig of his beer and studied Barney carefully. "Sounds more like  _you're_  regretting something."
> 
> He pulled his head away, turning instead to look directly at the kids who had gathered together around a microphone at the side of the bar to sing in a rather off-key fashion. The smiles on their faces were so bright and free of stress that he couldn't help but envy the youth he saw radiate from each of them. There were a great many things that Barney truly regretted in his life, with the loss of Billy still dangerously close to the top of his list. He'd been a good kid, Barney thought to himself as he watched the younger crowd so closely gathered together. They'd have liked him, and he would have fit in with them just fine.
> 
> Barney heard Lee sigh beside him, knowing that his friend had just come to understand the very thing that he was currently regretting as he observed their younger counterparts. "Barn, don't do this to yourself."
> 
> "I could have made a different call."
> 
> "No," Lee said firmly. "You chose this lifestyle. You chose it long before anything else came along, and you know that it would have been selfish of you to tried keeping both of them. You did what you had to do."
> 
> Though there was a sense of conviction ringing strongly in the words that Lee spoke, they did little to comfort Barney right now. All he could think about was the past and the mistakes that he had made, the choices that had lead him down the path of becoming an Expendable and remaining with the group. Stonebanks was no longer a threat to anyone, he had seen to that – but that didn't mean that things were going to go back to the way they were. How could they? Now that these old wounds had been re-opened again they were all that Barney could think about. It was like staring at an old movie screen while the images of your past began to haunt you, clouding over the reality of your situation with the constant question of "what if?" What if he had chosen to settle down all those years ago? What if he had left and allowed Lee to take control of the group while he enjoyed a much more leisurely pace of life?
> 
> "You're gonna go mad," Lee warned, taking another swig from his bottle. "Or give yourself an ulcer."
> 
> That did it. Despite himself, Barney couldn't help but smile just a little at the thought. Leave it to Christmas to always be cheerful when he was feeling a little down in the dumps. The two had been friends for so long that Barney Ross could barely remember a life that hadn't involved having Lee Christmas by his side, a second in command. Even as other members of the team had come and gone, it was always Christmas who volunteered to get him out of a jam no matter how much he bitched about it later on. He trusted him like no other, as if he were the brother that Barney had never had growing up. He was the only member of the Expendables aside from Doc who knew all about the darker recesses of the past that lurked within his soul.
> 
> "That would be just my luck," grumbled the aged Italian.
> 
> The pair shared a chuckle and clanged their beer bottles together, redirecting their attention to the stage where the younger crowd had just finished their song and were now responding to the applause of the bar. Of course, they hadn't really been that great, but the other members of the team who sat around the room were more than enthusiastic as they pounded on the top of the bar, hooting and hollering strongly. Even the other patrons were caught up in the merriment and clapped loudly to demonstrate their appreciation for the effort.
> 
> "Excuse me, I'm looking for a Mr. Barney Ross?"
> 
> Hearing his name immediately distracted the older man, who turned his head sharply to look at the smaller figure who approached the bartender with a timid glance about her, clinging tightly to the manila envelope that she pressed to her chest. At first, Barney was just confused. What was a little thing like that doing in a place like this? Her graying hair was pulled back into a sleek bun at the back of her head while her eyes looked through a pair of thick glasses that still forced her to squint a little at the bartender. On her feet she wore a small black heel that he might have expected to see in church on Sunday mornings, lending to the black ensemble of a skirt, scarf and jacket that she wore on the rest of her frame. The only hint of colour came from the white blouse he could see peeking out from the top of her jacket, where a thin rope of pearls decorated her throat.
> 
> But more importantly than anything else, how had a little old lady like this known to come into this very bar in order to find him? It wasn't like Barney had too many friends outside of the Expendables who would know of his location…
> 
> "I'm Barney Ross."
> 
> As the Italian put his beer down on the bar and turned in his chair to face her, the little old lady seemed to freeze for an instant. Blinking up at him with her dark eyes, it was almost as if she were suddenly being confronted by something she wasn't too keen to see. Or perhaps she was just scared of the bar, he reasoned to himself. Most people tended to avoid his place because of the people who frequently moved in and out of the doors, for they weren't generally the best dressed crowd in the city. It wasn't too often that a lady who appeared to be over fifty walked through the door of the establishment and went looking for one of the patrons.
> 
> The lady seemed to catch herself and quickly cleared her throat. "I was asked to see that this was delivered to you," she said, taking a small step forward so that she could hand the envelope to him. "I'm very sorry."
> 
> He took the manila envelope that was offered to him carefully, noting how quick the old lady was to step back out of his reach once he had taken possession of her package. There was more than a single sheet of paper inside of it. The envelope was thick with paperwork, all of which was stapled together and marked with a few sticky notes that had been bent slightly when placed inside the restrictive container. Dark eyes scanned the front page of the package, frowning slightly until he came to the end of the first sentence and all tension fell away from his face. Several times he blinked down at it, willing the words to rearrange themselves into something else, anything else. They couldn't be true, could they?
> 
> As if he sensed that something was wrong, Lee slowly moved to his feet and shifted in behind Barney until he was able to read the letter as well. Almost instantly, his own face began to fall and he quickly looked up again, anxious to demand an explanation of the woman who had delivered the package. But to his surprise, he discovered that the old lady had disappeared without a trace. All that remained was a sheet of lavender coloured paper that had been dropped on the floor where she had previously stood, folded neatly in a way that was too familiar even for Lee to forget.
> 
> He quickly knelt down to retrieve the piece of paper, looking between it and Barney for a moment before he finally held it a short distance from his body so that the colour might catch his friend's eye. And it did, for the instant Barney caught sight of it he snatched it unkindly from Lee's offering hand and opened it so that his eyes could absorb the handwriting it contained. For a moment they flickered back and forth across the page as he continued to read to the end.
> 
> "Shit!"
> 
> Without warning he dropped everything onto the bar and bolted for the door, pushing it aside so roughly that the swinging motion caused the hinges to groan as he looked around at the outside of the building in the hopes of seeing anything that might direct him to the woman who had disappeared so quickly. Part of him thought that perhaps he ought to follow and see what the fuss was about, but as soon as Lee picked up the lavender sheet of paper and read the words for himself, his teeth grit together in frustration. Now he understood…but the others were looking at him now in question, wordlessly asking what had just caused the little scene that left Barney running away from them as if his life had depended on it. Well, Lee completely understood. But he wasn't sure that it was something the team needed to know right away.
> 
> "Hey! The little old lady, where did she go?"
> 
> The biker was rather startled to be addressed so briskly by the man who had come storming so suddenly out of the bar. He'd just been leaning on his bike and talking to a tall, leggy blonde when it had happened, and it took him a moment to register the fact that the older Italian man was indeed addressing  _him_  and not anyone else around him. Normally he'd be rather annoyed at being so rudely interrupted…but one look at this guy and he immediately knew who he was. And he wasn't stupid enough to go picking a fight when he knew that half of the people inside the bar were with this guy.
> 
> He pointed down the street. "That way."
> 
> Barney offered no word of thanks as he turned his body sharply to the left and began to run down the street, his graying head looking about him for any sign of the little old woman who had come and gone so quickly. All the while he mentally cursed himself for not spotting who she really was beneath the disguise that she had fashioned for herself, remembering now of the letter he had once gotten that told all about how she had taken to dressing herself differently to trick people. He'd known about it for years despite never having seen it for himself.  _Until today_ , came the bitter reminder. Damn it, how could he be so blind as not to notice?
> 
> His frustration grew as he continued down the street and still found nothing that might point him in the right direction. This area of the city was a little rougher, which meant that he didn't need to contend with quite as much street traffic as he might have in another place. The few people that he did pass as he continued his dash along the sidewalk would pause for a moment to turn and look at him, wondering what it was that sent the older man moving in such a hurry, but he didn't stop for any of them. There was no time. All it would take was a few moments more and she could disappear forever before he had a chance to tell her the things that he had been keeping to himself for so many years. She would understand, he reasoned to himself. She  _had_  to understand. Especially now that the only world she had ever known had come crashing down and left her in the darkness without a single thing that was now familiar to her.
> 
> So caught up was Barney in his thoughts that he didn't register when the sidewalk came to an end and the road began. Before he knew it there was a loud blare of a car horn screaming in his ear and the old man turned his head just in time to see a red car headed straight for him. Instinct kicked in then, prompting him to jump up in the hopes of landing on the hood and being able to roll off without too much injury. But his body was not as young as it had once been and he instantly felt the sharp impact of the car against his thighs, which sent him flying backwards and rolling along the pavement with a groan. As he came to a stop and slowly tried to pick himself up, the car door opened and footsteps could be heard approaching.
> 
> "Are you crazy!? Why the hell would you-"
> 
> But the question never finished. Turning his head slowly to look up at the figure that loomed over him, Barney was rather struck by the resemblance he saw within her. Though she wore a look of absolute terror on her face and stumbled backward a little to put some distance between them, what he saw now was the exact reason that she hadn't approached him properly in the bar. Gone was the black jacket and scarf that had been part of her disguise, leaving only a short sleeved blouse of white that was tucked neatly into the pencil skirt and now showed a more youthful figure. Her feet instead sported a rather classy pair of black heels that looked far more age appropriate to the ones she had previously been wearing. And the grey hair was gone as well – a wig, he presumed, that was meant to throw him off even further in case he had recognized her beneath everything else. Instead her dark brown locks hung freely down her back with the tell-tale curl that came from her heritage, and her own eyes of deep brown were locked entirely on him as Barney pushed himself back to his feet.
> 
> "Get out of my way."
> 
> The chilly tone of voice that she used with him only doubled the blow that he felt when he saw the way that her eyes had narrowed toward him in anger, her body language completely closing him off. He staggered a little unsteadily on his feet for a moment until he regained his balance, pressing his good hand against the shoulder that now ached from the hard contact it made with the pavement of the street. Gingerly rubbing at the muscles, Barney did his best to straighten his shoulders a little more.
> 
> "I'm fine, thanks for asking."
> 
> "You ran out in front of me," she told him stiffly as the tension continued to move through her body and into the tight fists of her hands. "It's your own fault for running out in front of a moving vehicle."
> 
> She gave him no time to retort before she turned on her heel and stormed back toward the car, giving Barney only a few precious seconds in which to stop her before she disappeared again. And this time, he was certain that he would never be able to find her if he went looking. That thought alone spurred him forward until he reached the driver's side door, quickly placing an arm in front of her so that she couldn't climb into the front seat and drive away as she intended. And when he did, he saw the anger flash once more in her eyes.
> 
> "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded hotly.
> 
> Barney frowned a little. "I think it's pretty obvious that I'm stopping you."
> 
> "You have absolutely no right to do that, Barney," the girl growled at him.
> 
> At that, his frown settled in a little deeper. "You don't have the right-"
> 
> "I have every right! Just as I have every right to get into my car and drive away with the intention of never coming back. I came only because she asked me to come and make sure you were informed of what had happened, but I don't owe you anything else."
> 
> She was right – loathe as he was to admit it, she was right. With all the years that lay behind him, all of the things that he did and did not do throughout his life that might have steered him in another direction, she owed him absolutely nothing. Yet all things considered, he knew that he couldn't allow her to just walk away as she intended. There was something deep down that nagged at him to stall for as long as he could, wracking his brain for any potential excuse that might get her to reconsider for only a moment so that he had that time to think of how to remedy the situation between them. Hell, why did this have to be so damn difficult?
> 
> Shaking his head, Barney looked down at her smaller frame with stern eyes. "I'm not asking for me," he began, hoping that this ploy might work. "I'm asking for her. You know she would have wanted us to talk about this, Mickey."
> 
> It was the use of her nickname that seemed to register the most with the girl, who looked up at Barney's larger form with a little more softness in her eyes than he had previously seen. Even when she closed her eyes tightly and turned her head away, he could see that his words were creating conflict for her conscience. As much as she wanted to turn and run from him, she couldn't bring herself to do it. The tension in her jaw slowly melted away as her shoulders slumped a little in resignation, a sigh passing through her lips.
> 
> At the risk of pushing his luck, Barney spoke again. "Doc and Christmas would love to see you again."
> 
> The tiniest perk in the corners of her lips told him that he was still safe. "You haven't gotten them killed yet?"
> 
> "Not yet," he grumbled in agreement, a touch of laughter in his words. "They've been keeping  _me_  alive, actually."
> 
> "I figured as much. You never were very good at keeping yourself out of trouble."
> 
> "You oughta know."
> 
> She turned her head and made eye contact with him for the very first time with a gaze that was almost void of the hostility she had shown him earlier, giving Barney a sense of ease. Perhaps they were not yet a lost cause, he thought to himself hopefully. Though he knew that a single misstep could put them right back to where they had started, he had to act on the more positive vibes that were showing between them before they vanished. All he could do was slowly lower his arm so that he no longer stood in her way and look down with pleading eyes.
> 
> "One day," he began softly, running his fingers through his hair to try and give them something to do aside from fidget at his side. "Just one day for us to look through the paperwork and then you can go if you want. I won't stop you. And this way I won't get my ass kicked for not letting the boys see you."
> 
> He could see the hesitation in her face as she chewed on her lower lip in nervous thought, questioning whether or not it was a good idea to agree to a twenty-four hour period in which she would have to sit down and talk to the old man about whatever was on his mind. Regardless of the hopes he might have for their brief meeting, there was still a bitterness rooted deep inside of her that burned at the idea of having to speak to him about anything. She had already made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him after delivering the package…but the idea of seeing Doc and Lee again? It had been so long that she was fairly certain neither of them would recognize her if they ran her over with their bikes…an ironic thought considering what had just happened.
> 
> Lifting her eyes once more, Mickey nodded slowly. "One day."
> 
>  


	2. Making Choices

> It was the longest and most awkward car ride that Barney Ross had ever endured in his life. Aside from the occasional mention of which turn she should take, there were no other words that were exchanged between the two of them. For his part, he was unsure of what there was for him to say. There was a risk of saying the wrong thing and scaring her off while she still had access to the vehicle and therefore the ability to disappear without a trace once more. Even though he was currently sitting in the passenger seat beside her Barney knew that it wouldn't take much for her to bolt. The tension in her hands was completely noticeable as she held the wheel with an iron grip, refusing to so much as look in his direction even under the pretense of needing to check her mirror.
> 
> He had decided not to direct her back to the bar. There were too many people around who didn't know what the situation was and would surely want to poke their noses into the fact that Barney Ross was suddenly walking around with a good looking girl who was clearly too young for him. Instead he took them back toward the hangar that had now become headquarters for the Expendables team, the place he had adopted as his "home" of sorts when he wasn't on a mission.
> 
> Fifteen minutes later the hanger was in sight and he could feel some of his own tension slip away. Finally there was something he felt comfortable with just on the horizon. But his anxiety rose again when he noticed the gleam of the bikes that were already parked inside, a sure sign that at least part of the team had returned to the hanger to wait. As he felt the car slow to a stop and the engine cut out, the Italian couldn't help but pray that Christmas might be the only one inside. He vaguely remembered having Lee over his shoulder when Mickey had delivered the package under her false identity in the bar, and he highly doubted that he had left everything sitting on the top of the bar for the world to see.
> 
> But that was just Christmas.
> 
> "This is it?"
> 
> He couldn't tell whether she was slightly disappointed or whether she was amused with the fact that he had taken her back to an airport hangar. It was nearly impossible for him to tell with the way she stood beside the car and glanced around her, eyes shielded by a pair of dark sunglasses that she had thrown on almost as soon as he had climbed into the passenger seat.
> 
> "Yeah, this is it," he said with a bit of a shrug. "I know it's not much-"
> 
> "I'm sure it does the job."
> 
> She was trying to keep herself completely neutral, he didn't need to be a genius to see that. Everything about her right now was sitting in a limbo that would frustrate him to no end as he struggled to guess what her true emotions were about the situation. Though her stance seemed to be almost uncaring of their change in scenery, his gut told him that she was already uncomfortable with where she was. It was a foreign place to her eyes, an area of the world that she had no knowledge of and therefore no control over. Despite her promise to remain for the following twenty-four hours just to get through all of the paperwork that was waiting for him to look at Barney knew all too well what the soft press in her lips meant. He'd seen it several times in the past…
> 
> "Come on."
> 
> His words were not pressuring, but as he crossed around the front of the car and moved to gently place a hand against the small of her back she started moving toward the hangar door as if to completely avoid his touch. Part of him was a little hurt by the abrupt dismissal of her body language, but he knew better than to argue at this point. Thus far he had been rather lucky with getting her to agree to come along with him. He didn't want to push his luck. Yet at the same time Barney knew that he was running short in the remaining time for silence. Whether she liked it or not they would soon have to discuss the issue that lay between them and hash out the volatile emotions he knew were lurking beneath the surface. Though whether they made it through that conversation or not would remain to be seen.
> 
> The doors were not firmly closed as they had been when he had left, so pushing them aside with his uninjured hand was relatively easy for the older man as he gestured for the girl to proceed ahead of him into the space. After a moment of slight hesitation she did just that, looking around at the various pieces of equipment that were carefully placed in their cases and the large plane that took up most of the space within the hangar. There were only two bikes in there right now, but Barney immediately knew who they belonged to.
> 
> "Hey, Barney! Everything all-"
> 
> Doc stopped as he appeared around the back end of the plane and took in the sight of the two figures before him, his head cocking slightly to the side as he become focused solely on the womanly outline that continued to make her way forward. From behind him appeared Christmas, and he too simply stared at her until she was only ten feet away. There she stopped, seeming to regard the both of them with uncertainty in her eyes.
> 
> "Miss Mikayla." A grin spread across Doc's face as he laughed, dropping his arms until he could take her smaller hands in both of his larger ones and press them against his lips. "Sweetheart you look like the spitting image of your mother."
> 
> For the first time since he had seen her, Barney saw Mickey smile a little, the tension in her shoulders vanishing. "It's good to see you again, Doc."
> 
> "It's been fifteen years since we last saw you," Christmas chimed in, standing behind Doc with his arms folded tightly over his chest as he looked the young woman up and down with a frown upon his face. "What happened to that little girl who insisted on running around barefoot in her dresses?"
> 
> "She grew up."
> 
> Barney couldn't help but feel just a little jealous when he saw how easily she moved across the distance and wrapped her arms around Lee's chest as he hugged her close for a moment. A glance was shared between himself and Doc before he gave a sharp shake of his head and Doc nodded in silent understanding. When at last Mikayla pulled herself away from the embrace she didn't turn around and look back at Barney, but rather split her attention between Doc and Lee, who both regarded her with a warmth in their eyes that was almost uncharacteristic of the both of them. Despite all of the hardships that they had endured over the years, no matter how many bloody battles they had fought and friends they had lost, there still seemed to be a lot of compassion in their faces when they looked at the brunette before them, as if reminiscing of the days that now lay behind them.
> 
> "We were really sorry to hear about Blanca," Lee told her as he lightly placed a hand atop her shoulder.
> 
> "She was a beauty," Doc agreed, adding his sympathy.
> 
> With not much else she could say on the matter, Mickey simply smiled. "Thank you."
> 
> When the silence fell between them, Mikayla found herself standing a little awkwardly between the three larger men in the room and dropped her eyes to the ground in an effort to do something else with herself in the meantime. For a moment her mind mulled around with an idea of how to escape the situation in a dignified manner. There were a great number of questions that she could ask if she wanted to, though she had no desire to stand there and wait for the answers to come. Asking them would only remind her of the time that had been lost and the rather unpleasant situation that had brought them all together in the same room for the first time in almost twenty years.
> 
> But the approaching roar of motorcycle engines gave the girl the room that she needed to avoid such a tense moment. Turning her head, the brunette watched as a number of differently shaped bikes made their way into the hangar and veered off to the side where the other two had been parked, though the SUV that followed along behind them came a little deeper into the enclosure before it too turned off to the side and cut the engine. One by one each of the passengers disembarked from their own mode of transportation until Mikayla had a chance to look at them all clearly. The odd one she recognized from photos that had been around the house, while others were complete strangers that she had never before heard of. And to her amazement, many of them were not the experienced guns that she had expected to see, but rather a group of younger hires who couldn't have been much older than she was now.
> 
> Dark eyes scanned each of them to see if perhaps she would recognize a face within their midst, but there seemed only to be one that looked even remotely familiar to her. And at first, she wasn't sure that she was looking at the right person at all. His hulking frame certainly set him apart from the others, as did the blonde locks of hair that sat atop his head. But he carried himself differently now, and the scars that he bore on his face were more in number than they had been in previous years. Still, as she watched him slam the door of the SUV and turn to look at the gathering of people that had formed within the walls of the hangar, she knew that he recognized her as well despite the years that had passed since they were last in each other's company. The instant she saw the grin, she knew.
> 
> "Hasn't Barney gotten you killed yet?" she asked him.
> 
> "Nah," Gunner said, brushing the comment aside with a grin. "Someone in this outfit has to be known for their good looks, and it sure as hell ain't him."
> 
> His deep laughter started to roll as he held his arms as wide as they would go and proceeded to wrap them around her smaller frame, hugging her close to his chest as he shifted his weight back and forth between his legs in a rocking motion. And for a moment, just a moment, she allowed herself to be lost in the past, where better times and memories lingered deep within the deep recesses of her mind. Even with the years that she had spent burying them as best as she could they were still as vivid as the day they had actually occurred.
> 
> Gunner pressed his cheek against the top of her head. "It's good to see you again, kid."
> 
> "I'm not a kid anymore," she reminded him as she pulled back and rewarded him with her small smile. "But it's good to see you too, Gunner."
> 
> "Who's the babe?"
> 
> Though the question was asked rather quietly to the person standing next to him, it didn't escape Mikayla's notice. She drew back from Gunner almost immediately and sharply turned her head to look at the offending male who had addressed her in such a manner, eyes narrowed dangerously. Each step that she took in his direction was accented with the sharp click of her heel against the concrete floor of the hangar, slow and deliberate as she crossed in front of Gunner until she stood at the front of the group with her eyes locked on the offender.
> 
> "I'm sorry, what was that?" she asked.
> 
> His own eyes seemed to narrow in response. "I think you heard me."
> 
> "Oh, I did. I was just giving you a chance to reconsider your choice of word."
> 
> "Not likely to happen."
> 
> "Then I suppose you're going to be sadly disappointed with the answer."
> 
> "Hey, knock it off!"
> 
> Their exchange was cut short by Barney's sharp order, though neither of them immediately turned to look back at him. They were far too busy with their staring contest to be concerned with him, especially since neither Mikayla not the idiot in front of her seemed too keen on taking a direct order from someone else. But the boy was doing well in his attempt to size her up, despite the fact that her choice in clothing alone was enough for him to dismiss her as a low scale threat if anything. Still, he'd be foolish not to take notice of the body that lay beneath the pencil skirt and blouse, which he found to be rather alluring.
> 
> It was only when Barney crossed the room and step between the pair that they finally gave it up, but Smilee could see almost right away that this situation was unlike any other that he had shared with Barney Ross before. This time there was another type of look in his eye, one that John Smilee had never seen since he started working for the older man, and it caught him a little off guard.
> 
> "I said, knock it off," Barney repeated in his darker tone.
> 
> It was a warning, and the others seemed to realize it too. Before Smilee knew what was going on, Luna had placed a hand on his shoulder to draw him back and Galgo was chattering in his ear about needing to take a step back. Doc and Christmas swept in rather quickly to remove the girl from the situation and lead her to the office that had been set up at the back. Thorn and Mars were already removing themselves from the situation by walking around the outside of the group, and they were followed rather quickly by Toll Road and Caesar, neither of whom were anxious to stay and see how things played out.
> 
> He stayed for only a moment longer before he let it go and turned away to busy himself with the cargo in the back of the SUV that still needed to be unpacked and tended to. And as Barney watched Smilee go, he felt Luna's watchful eyes on him before she too went off in the other direction. The only one who remained beside him was Gunner, who glanced between the two departing groups and shook his head a little.
> 
> "If I didn't know any better-"
> 
> "It's fine," Barney interrupted briskly.
> 
> Again, Gunner shook his head. "If that's your definition of 'fine' then I'd hate to see what happens when things get bad."
> 
> Barney looked at him for a moment before he turned away without a word and followed the path previously taken by Doc and Christmas. The tension in his jaw was evidence of his anger, and Gunner knew better than to question the motivation behind it at this current moment in time. There were but four of them in the room who had any idea of what was happening, and that was how it was going to stay until Barney said otherwise. But as he watched Barney storm off toward the office at the back of the hangar, Gunner felt that terrible jolt in the pit of his stomach that only showed itself when there was bad news on the horizon. There was no way for him to warn Smilee of his folly without sharing information that wasn't his to share, but Gunner knew that the wise-ass kid needed to be smacked before he was allowed within Barney's sight again.
> 
> Though he had to admit, watching Mikayla stand up next to him like that had been rather amusing for the Swedish giant. If he hadn't known any better, he might have thought that she would have kicked the kid's ass if given the chance. And that thought alone was enough to make him smirk in amusement.
> 
> "You'll have to forgive, Smilee," Lee said in his quiet tone, glancing briefly over his shoulder before he placed a hand against the small of her back. "The only woman he gets to see on a daily basis is the one who would kick his ass in a heartbeat."
> 
> "It's not every day we get a pretty young thing like you walking around," Doc agreed, attempting to make her smile a little.
> 
> But Mikayla was not overly amused, and only part of her anger was still sitting back with the boy who had decided to address her in such a rude fashion. "I've been dealing with his type for years," she told them both bitterly. "He's just lucky that Barney stepped in when he did."
> 
> Doc looked over her head and toward Lee, who seemed to be thinking along the same lines when he silently nodded his head in agreement. Neither man was a complete fool, though they were both aware that asking too many questions at this point might prove to be dangerous. They didn't know how Barney had managed to convince the young woman to accompany him back to the hangar, but they knew for certain that the conversation to come was going to be like walking on eggshells. A lot of things had been left unsaid over the last several years. And a lot of things had come to create negative feelings that would not leave without a fight.
> 
> Lee pushed aside the door of the office with his hand and flanked the opposite side of the door not taken by Doc as the pair stepped out of the way to let Mickey head inside. It wasn't really much to look at, the inside of the office. Barney had never been the kind of guy to deal with technology, and so the only thing involving wires was the telephone that sat in the one corner of the desk. Otherwise there was paperwork all over the surface of the desk; tactical plans, weapon lists and statements given to them for the work that they did.
> 
> She crossed the room in only a few steps, looking around to see if there was some sort of secret that the room might eventually reveal to their eyes. But there was nothing in there…save for the single item that caught her attention on the desk, immediately taking the brunette over to it with faster steps than before.
> 
> "I'm sorry about that, Mick," Barney started as he stepped into the office between his friends. "He-"
> 
> If ever there was a time when Barney wished he could freeze time and stop something from happening, now was certainly the time. Instead of looking down at the package of paperwork that the boys had kindly placed on the desk after his rather abrupt disappearance at the bar, Mikayla had taken something else into her hand, something that instantly made Barney's insides go cold. The way she looked at the picture…the sadness and hurt that lay behind her eyes…he didn't have to be a genius to know what was going through her mind now. It was all plainly written on her face, an agonizing look that went no further than her eyes…but didn't really need to.
> 
> "Mickey-"
> 
> "You got him killed, didn't you?"
> 
> Barney's eyes closed as he inhaled slowly and tried to steady himself against the blow of the question. The younger recruits didn't know, but his old team had learned to let the past sit behind them and never questioned the fact that Billy's picture was still sitting in the corner of the cork board on the wall as a constant reminder of what they had to lose in this line of work. He didn't even really think about it anymore, for the picture had come to feel like such a normal thing to him. But now he regretted his decision entirely, especially when his mind registered the venom in Mikayla's words.
> 
> "I did."
> 
> All at once the tension had returned to her body and she began to tremble as she slowly turned herself to face him and lifted her eyes away from the wallet-sized photograph in her hands. He had never seen such anger before, such a burning passion that completely overtook her form. If it were possible, he didn't doubt that she would have burst into flames right then and there. In one sharp movement she had slammed her hand against the top of the desk and left the picture there, face down so that neither of them would have to look at the smiling youth on the other side.
> 
> "It's bad enough that you put your own life on the line every day," she muttered darkly, taking a slow step toward him to punctuate her words. "And Lee's and Doc's and Gunner's….but those other members of your team? They don't have any idea of what they're getting into when they get involved with you. They don't know just how tough this life is."
> 
> He said nothing as he watched her advance, his tongue unwilling to move in order to rebuke anything that she threw in his face with all of the unspoken hatred she possessed - all of the hatred he knew he deserved.
> 
> "That's why you take them so young," Mikayla continued until she was standing right in front of the aging Italian and glaring heavily up at him. "Because then you're stopping their lives before they even began. And then you can feel good about the fact that you're only ruining one life and not anyone else who might be attached to them at the same time." She paused, looking him up and down for a moment. "You're even more pathetic than I imagined."
> 
> As the initial shock of her words was absorbed into his body, Mikayla left him no time to question her or even begin to argue back before she stormed past him, through the open door of the office and back down the concrete floor toward her car. He could hear her footsteps retreating, growing further and further away with every step that she took, but Barney didn't immediately respond because his mind was so wrapped up in the things that she had said, analyzing the truth behind it all. After a moment though, he realized that he was losing his opportunity, and turned sharply on his heel to chase her down.
> 
> But he was too late. By the time he was halfway across the room she had already put the car in gear and backed her way out of the hangar so quickly that black marks were left behind from her tires. He cursed to himself and placed both hands on either side of his head, grumbling and swearing about how stupid he had been. What the hell had made him think that he might actually be able to reason with her? What a damn fool he had been. His head turned to look at the open door through which Mickey had disappeared, exhaling sharply as he felt a hand connect with his shoulder.
> 
> "I wanna punch something right now."
> 
> Lee shook his head. "You've already busted up your good hand."
> 
> "Then I'll bust up the other one too," Barney told him stiffly.
> 
> Doc slowly made his way to Barney's other side, his eyes also staring at the door that had provided the escape route. "Hey man, you didn't have a chance, okay? You didn't do anything wrong."
> 
> "Yeah…right…"
> 
> Pulling away from the both of them he clenched his non-dominant hand into a fist and stormed back to the office, passing Gunner who just watched him go until he heard the forceful slam of the door to signal Barney's exit. He watched the door for only a moment long before he walked toward Lee and Doc, a questioning look on his face. But he wasn't stupid…he knew how it had gone.
> 
> "That good, huh?"
> 
> Doc rolled his eyes a little and scoffed. "World War Two went better than that."
> 
> "You think she'll come back?" Gunner asked them.
> 
> But Lee just shook his head. "I don't think so," he confessed. "I think that ship sailed a long time ago."
> 
> Silence fell between them as they each took their turn looking between the open hangar and the closed office door then slowly filtered away to carry on with their individual tasks. That looked to be the end of it, though they knew that their encounter with Mikayla would haunt Barney for a while before he finally managed to put it behind him. If he ever could, that is. And given the look on his face when he had pulled away from them, there was a chance that he would never truly be able to put this incident behind him.


	3. The Set Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm so sorry that these notes are only just being used in the third chapter, but I'm brand new to AO3 and I haven't quite figured out all of the little toys that we get to play with yet! But I'm very much looking forward to using this site as a way of sharing my work and seeing the work of others, so I hope to hear from some of you in regards to the fictions that I write. If you feel so inclined, please leave me a comment when you have finished reading. I'd absolutely love to know your thoughts!

> The mission had begun as it was expected to go. It didn't require the same number of people as the ones that Barney normally caught wind of, and that suited him just fine. There had been room for only one more person anyway, someone who could rival Yang in their ability to remain hidden, get in, get out and shoot a gun with accuracy. Bonaparte had brought him a number of different people who would could handle the job with ease, many of them older and more experienced hires who might have given him grief over taking orders. But when that last application had crossed the desk, he knew immediately who to hire. It didn't make a lick of sense to him as to why it had to be that one, but they were hired nonetheless.
> 
> "Three minutes!"
> 
> From his place behind the wheel Trench looked back at the two members of his team and immediately realized that they were just as tuned into the job as he was. Yang was already suiting up and re-adjusting the way that his gun sat on his shoulder. Valdez on the other hand was ready, with one hand on the weapon and one hand holding to the top of the truck to stay upright.
> 
> A wildcard, that was what Bonaparte had said when throwing the resume at him. It seemed that both of them had come across the name before, but there weren't too many instances where Valdez had worked with a team of any kind. There wasn't really anyone to call up for a reference, but the resume provided almost all of the information they could possibly need. Unlike most of the other ones that came into Bonaparte's possession, this one shared a little more detail. Not enough to expose clients and targets necessarily, but detail enough to make Trench smirk when he read it. And that didn't happen too often anymore.
> 
> "Two minutes!"
> 
> Their destination was fast approaching, and he knew that time was of the essence with this mission. The target travelled with only a small personal guard according to the information that they had received, which was part of the reason that his team of three was all that was needed. But he was going to be in the area for only a short window of time and they would need to act quickly if they were to pick him up and return him to the United States to face charges on war crimes among other things. Apparently this guy was some kind of ghost, for he seemed to appear and disappear so quickly that not even the CIA were able to get a read on him. "The Warden," they called him.
> 
> "One minute!"
> 
> Valdez turned and looked over at Yang. "Is he always this nervous?"
> 
> Yang just shrugged his shoulders.
> 
> The two shifted their bodies until they were standing side by side, each holding onto some part of the truck's back end to keep from falling over. The terrain that they were driving over wasn't exactly the smoothest pavement in the world, and so the two were constantly bending their knees and shifting their weight as they were jostled all over the place. In less than a minute they would drop out of the back of the truck and the mission would be underway.
> 
> Just a typical day to them.
> 
> As soon as they felt the truck lurch to a stop they both leapt from the back and hurried to conceal their bodies behind the nearest pieces of building that they could find, weapons at the ready. According to their source, The Warden would be somewhere within the ground floor of the building, likely the back lobby, to deal with his client. They would have exactly ten minutes to make their way inside and take down any extra threats before they escorted The Warden back to the truck and toward the airport. It seemed like a simple enough mission, one that they had repeated countless times in the past. And as long as they didn't beat him up to badly in the process of loading his sorry ass into the truck, they'd be paid before the end of the day.
> 
> "Target is inside," came Trench's voice through the ear-coms.
> 
> Trench would be their decoy if it came down to that. He'd positioned himself somewhere behind the two of them in case he was needed before they made their escape, but Yang and Valdez were fairly confident that they would be able to handle the assault on their own. It wasn't their first rodeo, and much to Trench's surprise the two of them had seemed rather comfortable together despite knowing nothing about one another. It was an unspoken trust between the two professionals that they would have each other's backs while they were inside attempting to do their job. Though truth be told, Trench didn't know that the pair had exchanged more than a dozen words since their initial meeting.
> 
> "Four men total," came Yang's voice.
> 
> "This should be easy then," chimed Valdez.
> 
> Together they started to creep their way forward, hidden behind the rocks and various debris that the terrain provided as cover. Each step was quick against the gravel ground to make as little noise as possible. They didn't want to risk alerting their target to their presence before they were ready to strike. The entire plan rested on the fact that they had the element of surprise on their side and the ability to quickly take out his small guard.
> 
> "Ready?"
> 
> "Ready."
> 
> The two of them then split up and circled either side of the building, their eyes locked on the movements of their target. The Warden still seemed to be preoccupied with the discussion he was currently having with his client, not at all concerned about the fact that there were three people outside who were anxious to take him down and return him to American soil. Within seconds they had moved so far that the two couldn't see one another anymore, but both still had a clear view of the target that they were after.
> 
> Or so they thought.
> 
> Kneeling down into a steady position outside of the building, Valdez looked through the scope on top of the gun and breathed deeply. "Yang, you ready? I've got the target in sight."
> 
> But as Yang knelt down to prepare for his own part of the assault, someone moved within the group and a fifth party became visible from behind a wall. A memory was triggered in the instant that they appeared, causing the man to recall a person from the not-too-distant past who had caused quite a bit of grief. It didn't make any sense though, he thought. They had been hired to take out "The Warden," not –
> 
> Only when he saw the snap of his gaze turned in Yang's direction and the wicked grin appear on his lips did Yang finally come to understand. "It's a trap!"
> 
> "What?!"
> 
> Yang picked himself up off of the ground and turned as quickly as he could, running full speed back in the direction of where he knew that Trench would be waiting. They had to make it back to the truck. They had to get the hell out of there before –
> 
> But he was too late. He could hear Valdez and Trench both yelling in his ear, but the sounds of gunfire dominated as half a dozen men started to spray bullets in his direction, forcing the Asian to take cover behind a nearby rock. There were too many of them to tell where exactly they were coming from without going one by one, and he wasn't sure that he had that kind of time. They were laying it down heavy in their assault, pinning him a little too well for his liking.
> 
> "Get to the truck!"
> 
> "Trench, we're pinned down! I've got half a dozen on my ass!"
> 
> Valdez seemed to be in a similar situation, and that was more than enough for Yang to believe that this whole thing had been laid out just to trap them. The instant he saw that face he knew…he knew that they were in trouble. A brief lull in the firing gave him the opportunity to hurry forward and hide behind another chunk of rock, but the spray was still there, narrowly missing him on his way. For a second he ducked out of sight, but in the next instant he was up and answering with his own steady fire at those who opposed him before he swiftly ducked back down again to avoid being hit. And so he repeated the process. Run, fire, duck.
> 
> One man was taken down almost immediately, while a second took a few more shots before he joined the first in a bloody heap on the ground. Two down, four to go.
> 
> "Trench!"
> 
> Valdez was still yelling in his ear piece, the sounds of gunfire accompanying each spoken word. It didn't sound like either one of them was currently sitting in a good situation, but just based on the urgency of tone, Yang had to guess that he was doing a little better. Up her went and fired another dozen or so rounds until he could advance to the next spot and again analyze his situation. Damn was he angry though. To think that they had been lured into this trap…it made Yang's teeth grit together. As soon as they got out of this he was going to call Bonaparte himself and demand to know how the hell this sort of thing had come across his desk without his knowledge.
> 
> Trench started into the conversation as well. "Yang, on your six!"
> 
> The Asian turned his head around and saw the approach of the truck, bolting immediately in the same direction from which he had just come. The distance wasn't all that great, but with his shorter legs and the continuing spray of bullets that followed him as he ran, Yang wished that Trench had managed to make it a little closer to him. But at least the back of the truck was open for him to jump into, which provided much better cover than the rock formations outside. It took only a few seconds for him to get to his feet again and duck his head out the back to fire at the people he had missed earlier on, and Trench was rather quick to step on the accelerator again as soon as he heard the thump of Yang's body as he dove into the back of the truck.
> 
> "Valdez, we're on our way!"
> 
> "Get out of here now!"
> 
> Yang was surprised to hear those words. "Where are you?"
> 
> "Forget about me and go! You might have a chance if you get the hell out of here now!"
> 
> "We're not leaving without you," Trench argued.
> 
> "The hell you're not! They've got me – AHH!"
> 
> It didn't take a genius to know what had happened then, and even as Trench continued to yell for some kind of response, Yang knew what to expect. Even though cries on the other end told them that Valdez was still alive, there was no doubt that a bullet had lodged itself into the skin of their comrade. Their third member was down, and had made it perfectly clear that things on the other side were even worse than they had been for Yang. They had no choice but to do as they were told. Whether Trench liked it or not, they would need to leave without the newest member of their team.
> 
> Scrambling into the front of the truck, Yang placed himself in the passenger seat and looked about him as the gun fire was left behind, taking note of the scowl that Trench wore on his face. He understood the bigger man's reluctance to leave without Valdez, but Yang also knew that they both had a bad feeling about the encounter that they had just escaped. Neither of them needed to speak a word in order to know that the feeling was mutual though. There was something darker and much more sinister going on around them, but they had no way of reaching anyone else who might have been involved.
> 
> At this point their concern was with reaching their old acquaintance and giving him the heads up. But the first thing they needed to do was get back to their plane so that they could radio back home and get ahold of another contact who might also find this tidbit of information interesting.
> 
> "We've just landed in a shit storm," Trench grumbled, checking his mirror to make sure that they weren't being followed.
> 
> "You can say that again."


	4. According to Plan

> "Everything is ready, boss."
> 
> "You have our prisoner?"
> 
> "As you ordered."
> 
> The older man nodded quietly in response and slowly began to wander down the main tunnel, his arms folded loosely behind his back. Everything was moving swiftly according to plan. His trap had been laid, his bait taken by the idiots who thought they were simply going in on another mission and he had successfully acquired his target with ease. Perhaps he hadn't been as successful in killing the other two men who had come with his target, but he certainly wasn't going to mourn their loss too much. They would shortly be getting what was coming to them anyway.
> 
> Let them run home and report the news to the agency.
> 
> It was almost funny, he thought to himself, how it had all played so well into his hand. It seemed that a number of parties were rather interested in his business, some for different reasons than others, and that each one was anxious to get what they wanted before the clock ran out and the other party came out on top. And yet places like the agency, who claimed to know exactly what was going on when it happened because of the advanced technology that they had at their fingertips, was almost two steps behind this time. And now they were going to pay the price for it.
> 
> A grin spread across his lips as he continued down the tunnel and toward the larger room at the end, where the light shone through the small windows that were set high into the wall. It didn't really brighten up the dark room at all, but perhaps that was a good thing considering the heat outside. In the middle of the day those rooms could almost be unbearable due to the heat that came from the land outside. And without a decent body of water for miles outside of their current location there was no hope of any reprieve that might have come from the rain or even an overcast of clouds. So unless they were out doing a job, he and his men tended to remain indoors where the treacherous rays of sunshine could not burn their skin.
> 
> His footsteps slowed once he reached the center of the room, eyes leering down at the captive that had been bound to a chair with ropes despite the unconscious state they had been in when they had arrived. He could see all that he needed to see even without hearing a word, not that speech was likely to happen thanks to the gag that had been fashioned by one of his men. A hand outstretched to lift the chin a little, examining the face for any signs of mistreatment that went above and beyond what was expected. And in seeing nothing, he released the head and stepped back, slowly removing himself from the room once more.
> 
> Everything was going according to plan, he grinned to himself. And when this was all over, he'd have exactly what he had come here for. A shitload of money and revenge that would ensure his personal safety and happiness for the remainder of his life.
> 
> Perfect.


	5. Heading For a Shit Storm

> Two weeks had passed since the rather unpleasant scene that had unfolded in the office of the hangar, but still Barney Ross was struggling to shake it all off and carry on with his life. A few other jobs had been called in, and his team had done exactly what was expected of them – get in, get out, get paid. It sounded simple enough, and the team had taken on a few more jobs throughout those two weeks than they were accustomed to. And while the younger members of the team were constantly looking to the others with questioning looks, the older members just shook their heads in silent warning. It wasn't a conversation that they would want to open up.
> 
> As the plane came to a halt, everyone slowly rose from their place within the cabin and prepared to disembark. They had grown rather used to the process that followed their arrival back home, and so few words were spoken as they all set about their tasks. Gunner and Caesar began to unload the heavier crates of weaponry, passing them down to Toll Road and Smilee who then lugged them across the floor and to the designated area for storage. Luna had already descended the ramp of the plane with a few of the heavy bags in her hands, depositing them on the floor beside the table to worry about later on. The cleaning products had already been grabbed by Thorn and Mars as they unlatched a few of the cases and pulled the weaponry apart, carefully inspecting each piece as they went. Having their guns jam up because of dirt would not be good for business…and with the frame of mind that Barney always seemed to have about the issue, they didn't want it to be the reason that any of their team ended up dead.
> 
> It was a long process, one to which they had become accustomed, but after taking on so many extra missions over the past two weeks the team was beginning to look exhausted. They were almost sluggish in their movements, going more by mechanical feel than presence of mind as they wandered back and forth between the table and the plane. There was none of the usual chatter and laughter that followed the end of a mission, no playful banter or jokes at the expense of one of the younger boys.
> 
> With a nod to Doc, who was only just preparing to leave the plane, Lee shifted in his seat and turned his head to look over at Barney. It didn't take a genius to know that his comrade was avoiding his eye. He knew that he was still sitting in the co-pilot seat, waiting for him to speak.
> 
> Evidently, they had known one another too long.
> 
> "Would you quit starin' at me?" Barney grumbled as he flipped a couple of switches above his head. "You're gonna burn holes."
> 
> "Maybe that's what it'll take to get through that thick skull of yours," Christmas offered bluntly.
> 
> Barney slowly turned to look at him. "I don't want to talk about it."
> 
> "No shit," he answered with a roll of his eyes. "But that doesn't mean you don't need to."
> 
> The scowl returned to Barney's face as he pushed himself out of his chair and retreated toward the back of the plane, anxious to avoid the conversation that he knew was just sitting there waiting to be had. But Christmas was hot on his heels by the time he reached the ramp, following him with the speed of a slightly younger man and the heavy footsteps that clearly meant business. The others all turned their heads as they watched the two of them storm across the pavement, one in pursuit of the other. Even Galgo fell silent when he saw them, knowing that a shit storm was brewing on the horizon. And the general rule of thumb seemed to be that when even Galgo knew to keep his mouth shut and his head down, the rest of them needed to follow suit.
> 
> "Hey!"
> 
> Barney stopped when Christmas shouted at him, turning around to find that his comrade was only a few feet behind him and very quick to close the gap. And whether he liked it or not, he knew that the rest of the team was now watching the confrontation with questioning eyes, wondering what on earth had gotten them both so worked up. And yet he knew that they didn't need to ask. He knew that they talked when his back was turned, sharing pieces of information and secrets that they didn't want their boss to hear. That's just how it was, and he had accepted that a long time ago. But this was different from all those times in the past because this was far more personal than most of them could imagine. And he wasn't ready to discuss it with anyone yet.
> 
> "Stop being such a bloody punk about this," Christmas started, jabbing a finger against Barney's chest. "Either suck it up and accept that it happened or go out there and fix it, but don't sit here feelin' sorry for yourself like you did nothin' wrong."
> 
> "What just what did I do wrong, Lee?" Barney barked at him. "Since you seem to have such an insight into this whole thing, why don't you tell me where I went wrong?"
> 
> "You were never there."
> 
> The brutal truth of the words was enough to catch Barney off guard and force him back a step, as if Lee had slugged him right across the jaw instead of simply yelled the horrible truth in his face. It was something he had always tried to deny to himself as the days had drawn on and the missions had become longer. He never truly accepted it, but insisted that it was the right thing to do, the best way to handle the situation that had fallen before him all those years ago. And unfortunately for Barney, it hadn't been as easy to walk away as he had once thought it would be. And here it was again, staring him in the face when he wanted it least of all.
> 
> "You were never there," Lee repeated, this time softer. "You can't deny it, Barn. Did you even know that Blanca was sick? Because I sure as hell didn't know or I'd have been there."
> 
> He couldn't deny it. He had tried so hard to cut that part of his life away that Barney hadn't spoken to the woman in almost ten years before Mickey had appeared in the bar and tried to disguise herself from his eyes. Perhaps this was his punishment for having been so absent and distant for all those years, he thought. To see it all torn away in a single moment. There was no way for making up the time that had been lost to him because of past decisions and he knew it all too well now. And while he knew that it wouldn't serve any sort of purpose to dwell on what he could not change, the Italian couldn't help but feel sorry for himself.
> 
> Lee shook his head, giving a small sigh as he recognized the look in his friend's eyes. "Look mate, I can't tell you how to live your life. But maybe this is something you can't change."
> 
> There…he'd said it. But Lee would have given almost anything to remove the guilt ridden look that Barney wore on his face as the reality started to sink in. In the years that they had worked together they had seen a large number of unpleasant things that they would rather have avoided, and lost quite a few good men who had proven themselves to be good friends. Lee knew that Barney still had yet to forgive himself for the manner in which Billy had been killed though, and since that was what had set off the failed conversation with Mikayla that was so clearly weighing on his mind, it was pointless to think that his thoughts weren't still wrapped up in it. There was nothing that they could have done to save the poor kid from going to an early grave, not with the way they had been ambushed during that mission.
> 
> For a moment Barney just stood there in silence, unable to form the words that he wanted to speak or even choose the right ones for this moment. He could feel the rest of the team behind him, frozen in their shock at having seen such an open argument between himself and Lee that went above and beyond their usual bickering. All of a sudden it was like having a hole punched in the middle of a well thought-out plan. Precious little was making sense to him, and even less than that was sure to make sense to his team. Only a handful of them really understood what was going on, and that was how Barney planned to keep it.
> 
> There was no point in telling them more than they needed to know. It wasn't a job they were hired for.
> 
> The uncomfortable silence was beginning to weigh on them all though, and it was Doc who slowly stepped forward and made to put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Barn-"
> 
> But the screech of tires against the pavement caught them all off guard and forced their attentions to the doors of the hangar, where company had chosen that exact moment to arrive on scene. The two SUV's that came roaring into the space were black in colour, with windows so heavily tinted that there was no way for them to see who was inside the vehicle until the doors themselves were opened to reveal the occupants. Barney turned to watch them with narrowed eyes. Not many people came and went from this place without his knowledge or being a member of his team, and these vehicles were definitely not standard issue for the Expendables team. Whoever was inside had business to discuss, and by the way that they had come ripping into the hangar he was pretty sure that it wasn't a social call.
> 
> Lee and Doc slowly began to flank Barney as the rest of the team assembled in behind them, each with their own stance of impatience and uncertainty as they stared at the intruder vehicles. Only Smilee and Luna lagged behind a little to keep their bodies close to the weaponry in case a need for them arose. One by one, each Expendable began to shift themselves into a more threatening position that warned the newcomers not to mess with them.
> 
> When the doors of the first car opened however, Barney couldn't help but blink. "Drummer?"
> 
> "Ross, we have a problem," the old man grumbled, slamming the door shut.
> 
> "Looks more like  _you've_  got a problem," he observed, letting some of the tension in his shoulders disappear.
> 
> Drummer shook his head, quickly approaching the group. "No… _we_  have a problem."
> 
> "Trust me, Barney, you're in this whether you like it or not."
> 
> At the sound of the new voice, all heads turned to the doors of the second SUV and the two men who climbed from the back to join the growing group on the tarmac. Both Trench and Yang looked like they had been a little beaten up as of late, with a few scars on their faces and a limp in Yang's step to betray the outcome of their most recent mission. But the gang seemed mostly shocked to see them at all, since it was fairly uncommon for them to work together nowadays.
> 
> "What the hell happened to you?" Lee asked them.
> 
> "We were played," Trench told them, glancing sideways toward Drummer for a moment before he turned back to address Barney directly. "We were hired for a mission…only to be set up."
> 
> The aging Italian shook his head in confusing and held up both of his hands as a signal for them all to stop what they were doing. Hell, he was already confused with what they were doing there and their constant rambling was not making the situation any clearer. At this point he was more likely to develop a headache from listening to their babble before he accomplished anything else.
> 
> "Would you morons just tell me what the hell is going on?" he demanded, looking between the two groups. "You've kinda showed up at a bad time."
> 
> "Then I'm afraid it's about to get worse."
> 
> From under his arm Drummer produced a large manila folder that he handed directly to Barney, who looked at him rather skeptically before he accepted it and began to scan through its contents. Photos and other documents lined the front parts of the folder, which was stuffed rather full of all the information that had been gathered on the subject – known only as "The Warden."
> 
> "We were alerted to this guy when he started picking up the business that Stonebanks left behind," Drummer narrated as the looking through of the photos continued. "But there was an anomaly in his process that made us second guess ourselves. We sent Trench, Yang and a third member of their team to take care of him."
> 
> "I didn't think you had a team," chimed Doc.
> 
> "We didn't," came Yang's steady answer. "We went to Bonaparte and he gave us the name."
> 
> He was the best person to go to when you were looking for someone to do the job. It was Bonaparte who had initially pointed Barney in the direction of the younger members of his team and praised their skills above all of the other candidates who had crossed his desk. And evidently Barney wasn't the only person who still turned to him when they needed to get the job done. But the more Barney though about it, the more he frowned. They spoke about this third member of their team and yet he only saw the two of them standing there, which lead him to believe that perhaps this time Bonaparte had made a bad call.
> 
> "Is he dead?" he asked.
> 
> "Who?"
> 
> "The third member of your team."
> 
> Trench shook his head, his eyes flashing with a sudden anger that hadn't been seen in quite a long time. "I don't know. We tried to go back for her but she called his off before we could get in to save her."
> 
> "Her?"
> 
> This time it was Drummer who nodded. "Bonaparte gave them a young woman who looked to be only slightly less deadly than Luna," he said, looking up to the sole female member of Barney's team. "Excellent in hand-to-hand situations, unique gift with the old school bow and arrow and just as good with a gun. Went by the name of Valdez."
> 
> The shock of hearing that name so soon was enough to make Barney shoot his head upward to look at Drummer with an expression that could only read as surprise. There was no possible way…it had to be a coincidence. His body barely registered the firm hand that was placed on his shoulder as one of the others moved in around him and slowly took the file from his hands, beginning their own initial scan of the documents. More mutterings were exchanged as the others began to enter the conversation, and though Barney registered the movements of their lips his ears heard nothing that was spoken. His mind was too busy whirling around, overtaken with an anxiety he hadn't felt before.
> 
> "When did it happen?" Lee asked.
> 
> "Three days ago."
> 
> Gunner closed the file, offering it back to Drummer with a small shrug in his shoulders. "So what's the big emergency that you had to bring us into it?"
> 
> Drummer's look darkened heavily as he took possession of the file once more, stuffing a hand into the pocket of his pants as his fingers fished around for the items that he had placed inside only a shortly while before their arrival at the hangar. "The target went under a codename, much like Stonebanks had when he was working the weapons ring. We didn't realize that we already knew the target."
> 
> "An old enemy?" Doc said with a raised brow. "Sounds like typical agency stuff to me."
> 
> "Problem is, this guy already knows all about you. He's studied you, worked with you…hell, he probably knows as much about you as you do."
> 
> Gunner's own look darkened a little. "Who is it?"
> 
> "Church."
> 
> The uproar that was caused by a single name was absolutely astounding. All of a sudden the room was filled with tension that filtered between the older men in the room as the younger gang looked on, assessing the situation for themselves. Toll Road and Caesar shared a look that might have killed anyone else who got in the way, while Gunner's arms tensed again to match the enraged fists that currently shook by his side. Lee grit his teeth in frustration and turned away from them for a moment, running a hand over his head in an effort to keep them from punching the first thing he could reach. Of all the people who could possibly begin to work against them now, Church was probably the most deadly enemy they could encounter. He knew exactly what resources they had available to them, as well as the details of working along-side the team that he could only have gotten from careful observation.
> 
> Not to mention that his link to the CIA also meant that there were sure to be many more intimate details about them as a group and as individuals locked up on a hard drive somewhere.
> 
> "I thought you said he was out of the picture."
> 
> Barney was angry, and this clearly was not lost on Drummer. "I was assured that he was. But apparently his reach within the agency went back further than I realized."
> 
> "Excuse me."
> 
> All eyes turned around to look back at Galgo, who had raised his hand as if he were sitting in the middle of the school room. A nervous laugh escaped his lips for a brief moment when he felt everyone turning their attention to him, but he soon launched himself into asking the question that had pushed him to speak.
> 
> "Forgive me for being new," he began, glancing at the other new recruits. "But who is this 'Church' person that has you all so worried?"
> 
> "The CIA stooge we had before Drummer showed up," came Barney's abrupt response, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder in Drummer's direction. "Any other questions?"
> 
> This time however, it was Smilee who stepped forward with his arms folded loosely in front of his chest, his weight displaced to one side. Clearly, he was much more at ease right now than the others were, and it showed in his posture. "Uh, yeah. I still don't see what the issue is. If he's just another Stonebanks, minus being Expendable, why don't we just go and get him?"
> 
> "Because of this."
> 
> From within the folds of his pocket, Drummer produced a small memory stick that had been sent to him earlier in the day. There had been nothing on it that tech had needed to decrypt, no special message that was hidden in code or anything that would typically concern the CIA. Instead there was something of a more personal nature, and as soon as he had come to understand what it meant he had cancelled his debriefing with Trench and Yang and immediately brought them to the hangar in the hopes of finding Barney and his team before they disappeared on another mission. Was it fortunate or unfortunate that he had found them? Drummer didn't yet know. What he  _did_  know was that he wasn't overly anxious to show the contents of that memory stick off.
> 
> Thorn immediately jumped forward and take the stick in his hands, examining the exterior for signs of tampering or misuse. Seeing nothing, he motioned for everyone to follow him back to the main bank of computers that had recently been set up in the back corner of the room, a place where he could continue to work his technological magic when they returned. It took him only a second to throw it into the side of one of the computers and begin to tap away at the keys, bringing the contents into view.
> 
> It was a video, they quickly realized.
> 
> " _Hello Bam-Bam."_
> 
> There was no mistaking that voice either, a voice that the Expendables had heard quite a number of times in the past when they had been recruited first for their mission to deal with an ex-CIA operative and overthrow a dictator in Vilena and then again when they were forced to retrieve a piece of technology from a downed plane in Albania. It hadn't been the happiest of partnerships, and that last mission had been the one that had gotten Billy killed, which was something that Barney still couldn't let go of.
> 
> " _You're probably wondering why I'm taking the time to send you this nice little video,"_  he continued, taking the camera with him through a dark tunnel. It seemed that the only source of light within the area at the moment was from the camera itself, which only seemed to enhance the menacing grin that was plastered on Church's face. " _And that's because I want you to know that I'm enjoying my vacation. As you might now be aware, I no longer work for the CIA."_
> 
> He continued his slow walk down the tunnel, taking the camera with him as he approached something else. The smirk on his face that grew was a tell-tale sign of that, for clearly whatever it was that Church was seeing now was something that brought him a great deal of either joy or amusement. They couldn't really be sure which it was until they saw what he saw, and there was no guarantee that he would ever turn the camera way from himself. For the time being, his message was filled to the brim with his narcissism.
> 
> " _So I'm working my way to retirement now. I'm almost done. I've got lots of money hidden away, I've made some people happy over the last little while with my services…but there is one thing that I need to do before I can go away forever with peace of mind."_
> 
> Here he entered another room and came to a stop. It was still dark, but the dimensions of the walls behind him had changed drastically after the last few steps, and a slight tilt in the camera allowed them a chance to see a corner of the room in the distance behind him. Near that corner was a piece of window, through which a bright light shone and Barney could only assume that the window lead to the outside world. So he wasn't underground and he wasn't in the middle of a building.
> 
> " _I'd like to reunite this beautiful creature with her friends and family."_
> 
> At last the camera turned away from him, and with a swish of movement finally came to rest on a figure that was tied down to a chair, legs secured and arms tied behind her back as she continued to struggle against her bonds. There was no mask to shield her face, and so the trail of blood that came from a place along her hairline was visible to the camera as Church zoomed in closer to have a look at her. And when his hand reached up to tilt the woman's head a little and clear stray locks of hair from her face, the entire room gasped.
> 
> It was Mikayla.
> 
> The gag in her mouth prevented her from speaking audible words as she thrashed her head away from Church's hand and growled in his direction, but Thorn could clearly feel the anxious hands that were digging into the back of his chair as the group stood around the monitor. Nobody spoke a word at all as they continued to watch, their eyes frozen in shock and horror at the way in which the young woman was being man-handled before the camera. But when Church once again went to touch her face with his hand, he was met with instant hostility. Despite having the gag tightly wrapped around her head, Mikayla snapped at him with such force that the click of her teeth was picked up by the microphone of the camera.
> 
> " _She's a feisty little thing, isn't she? Just how I like 'em. So if you want her back in one piece you're going to do exactly as I say. Otherwise my hands my slip-"_ His free hand appeared in the shot, the glint of a blade appearing as it snapped free of its case.  _"And she might accidentally be found in a little, bite-sized dog treats."_
> 
> Mikayla continued to struggle against her bonds, wiggling her shoulders in an effort to loosen the ropes that held her fast. It was an old trick that had been seen several times over by a large number of the men who stood in that room, tightening every muscle to an enhanced size so that when you relaxed and began to move within your restraints, there was just enough room to move that could eventually lead to your escape. And that seemed to be exactly what Mikayla was attempting to do. Back and forth and back and forth did her body move, brushing painfully against the ropes. Even as he stood there staring at the screen Barney could make out the irritated skin that was being forced against the harsh rope fibres and the tiny trickles of blood that had already begun to spill. He could only imagine the pain that she was in at that moment, still working to free herself even though someone like Church would have been well trained to prevent her from escaping.
> 
> " _But hey, don't take my word for it. Let's hear from the little lady herself, shall we?"_
> 
> In a flash he had pulled the gag from her mouth and once more made a grab for her chin, the tips of his fingers biting into the soft flesh of her cheeks as he pulled her closer to the camera.
> 
> " _Come on, sweetheart. Beg for the old man to come and rescue you."_
> 
> " _Go to hell,"_ she spat.
> 
> But Church just clicked his tongue at her.  _"Now, that's not very nice is it? You should be a little nicer to the guy who could snap your neck without a second thought."_
> 
> " _Release me from these ropes then. I promise you that when this is over you won't be snapping anything."_
> 
> " _And why would you think that?"_
> 
> " _Because that's how it's all going to end."_ Mikayla grinned wickedly, ripping her face out of his grasp.  _"The old man isn't stupid enough to come after me. He couldn't care less. So it looks like you picked the wrong target."_
> 
> " _We'll see about that."_
> 
> Church nodded to someone behind him and moved away from Mikayla, who began shouting at him until that second person entered the frame and worked to put the gag back in place. He seemed to struggle a little in regaining control however, as the girl was not interested in going down quietly. The second man howled in pain as her teeth connected with his skin and blood was drawn, but just as soon as he had pulled his hand away the other flew out in rage and struck her across the face, throwing her head violently to one side.
> 
> " _Well, I guess we both know where we gets that temper from, huh Bam-Bam? So if you want to see her alive again, here's what you're going to do. You're going to withdraw every cent of the money that you were initially paid by me to handle the job in Vilena. Then you're going to hop on a plane and you're going to go exactly where I tell you to go, because I have a radio signal all set up for you. You're going to bring me that money, I'll let the girl go and then I'll make sure that you regret every single moment of your pathetic life before I mercifully end it for you."_
> 
> Barney's jaw tightened further as he saw the leering gaze that seemed to stare straight at him through the computer screen, almost as if Church had known exactly where to direct his focus when he had made his message. He wasn't playing games, and this time there was much more at stake than money.
> 
> " _I expect your plane to be in the sky no later than oh-five hundred tomorrow morning. Oh, and Barney? Leave the Little Rascals at home, or I'll make sure that you never find her body."_
> 
> And with that the screen fell blank.
> 
> For a moment there was absolute silence. Nobody knew what to say, and none of them dared to breathe too loudly in case it drew unwanted attention in their direction. But all eyes had come to land on Barney at one point during the last bit of the video, and the old man was so locked in his own world that he hadn't even noticed the tears that his fingers had made in the material of the chair in which Thorn still sat. The clench in his jaw was unmistakable, the quiver in his body becoming so violent that they could all see it clearly. Even Lee seemed at a loss of what to say or do.
> 
> The turn in his heel was sharp as he began to march away from the group. It took them all a moment to register the fact that he had moved, even when he brushed against some of their shoulders in his haste to get back to the plane. Most of the others were quick to follow along in behind him, each attempting to regain his attention so that they could talk him down from doing exactly as Church had instructed. But it was Drummer who made it in front of Barney first and brought the man to a halt, glaring at him as if that alone would be enough to deter him from going any further with this suicidal mission.
> 
> "Get out of my way, Drummer," Barney warned.
> 
> But Drummer just shook his head. "You're going to get yourself killed if you go out there alone and that's exactly what Church wants-"
> 
> "I'm not going to put her life in anymore danger than it already is!"
> 
> "You can't go in there alone."
> 
> "Like hell I can't."
> 
> "Barney, be reasonable," Luna chimed in, pushing her way to the front so that she could stand at his shoulder. "If Church wants you in there alone then he's not going to let either of you go. As soon as he has you, he'll kill her. You  _know_  that."
> 
> "I also know that if I don't do anything then she'll die anyway," he said, his words becoming a little more heated.
> 
> They didn't understand, none of them did. But how could they? They had wandered into completely unknown territory with absolutely nothing to help them navigate the waters, much like he had at one point in his life. The only difference now was that he didn't have the option of staying out of this strange new land anymore and they did. This was one mission that Barney Ross was going to have to do on his own. It was a grave that he had fashioned for himself long ago, when he first became Expendable, and now it was time to suffer the consequences of past actions. One way or another, the old man was sure that this was going to be his final mission.
> 
> At the end of it all, he'd be clocking out.
> 
> The rest of the team quickly surrounded him now that he wasn't moving, and Barney was not unaware of that fact even though his eyes never once left Drummer's face. He could tell that the wheels were turning in the head of the old man who stood before him, that he was attempting to formulate some plan of action that would ensure they all got through the ordeal with their lives. He wouldn't want Church to walk away from this either though, for that alone could be dangerous to the world in so many ways if he had really picked up where Stonebanks had left off in the armed weapons department. But none of those things were his concern right now. All that mattered was that he got the money that was being asked and got on the plane quickly so that he could find where it was that Church was keeping Mikayla.
> 
> "What's she to you anyway?" Drummer asked, his frown remaining in place. "She's just some punk kid that you don't even know, right?"
> 
> Barney growled. "Yeah, you could say that."
> 
> "Look man," Doc came up quickly, putting himself right behind Drummer's shoulder so that he could keep a sharp eye on the changes in Barney's facial expression. "You know we won't let you go into this alone. Not when he's got Mikayla like that."
> 
> "Mikayla?" Now it was Trench who joined into the conversation, looking rather confused. "Bonaparte said her name was Blanca Valdez."
> 
> Barney's stoic expression remained in place, with only a twitch in the one corner of his mouth to show the depths of his anger. "Blanca Valdez was her mother's name," he said, his voice a low rumble. "She might go by Valdez, but her name is Mikayla."
> 
> Drummer just shook his head and muttered. "Family always makes things complicated."
> 
> He started to turn away, but quickly realized that he was surrounded by the rest of the Expendables team, all of whom now stared at him with wide eyes and open mouths at this newest revelation. Evidently they were all in the dark about several factors that had risen in the past fifteen minutes, which was not all that encouraging. If they were going to have a hope in hell of making it through this then they were going to have to start learning the facts.
> 
> "You knew?"
> 
> Drummer turned sharply to look at Barney once more, facing the exact same look that had gone around the rest of the team. "I'd have reacted the same way if that creep had his hands all over my kid."
> 
> To those in the room who already knew the truth, hearing it said aloud was shocking. But to the newer members who hadn't ever learned of the things Barney had hidden away in his past, this hit a whole new level of insanity that couldn't immediately be understood. Though in reality, Smilee supposed that it explained quite a bit about the way that the girl had appeared out of nowhere and then stormed out again that day that she had been at the hangar with them. And now he understood why Barney had been so quick to jump between the two of them and pull her away from the confrontation that had started to evolve between the two of them. If that girl was his daughter like Drummer said she was, it was his protective nature that had kicked in and had him and some of the team separate the two of them before it came to blows.
> 
> But what the hell had she been doing with Trench and Yang?
> 
> "Now look, are you just going to stand here or are you going to come with me so that we can get her back?"
> 
> The snap in Drummer's words was enough to bring them all back to reality, even Barney, who gave his head a bit of a shake as a result. The agent seemed just as determined as anyone else to make sure that this mission was successful, for reasons that nobody fully understood. And though Gunner looked at him with suspicion in his eyes, he was the first to step a little closer to the circle.
> 
> "If you're going in there to get her, no way in hell are you leaving me behind."
> 
> "That goes for me too," Doc responded.
> 
> "Ditto."
> 
> Luna gently touched Barney's shoulder. "You're not going into this alone."
> 
> After a moment, the old man sighed. "What do you have in mind, Drummer?"
> 
> At this, the grey haired man grinned. "A bit of a shit storm," he said. "Just the thing for you guys."


	6. Mental Games

> The dying light inside the room told her that the sun was beginning to set. There was now less than twelve hours for her to figure out a plan of action before she knew Barney would likely be boarding a plan and heading to the coordinates that Church was going to send him in order to try and save her. But he was a damn fool in doing so, she thought bitterly. The instant Church had his sights on him Barney would be just as dead as she was going to be. He wasn't interested in just getting his money back, he wanted revenge on Barney for some slight that he had apparently suffered at the hands of the Expendable. And though ordinarily she might have been inclined to believe that Barney had indeed been in the wrong she wasn't willing to watch him sacrifice his life in an effort to save her own.
> 
> Mickey continued to wiggle about in her bonds as she pulled her wrists in each direction, hoping to loosen the ropes just enough that she might be able to pull her body free of their restrictive hold. They had knocked her unconscious before they had taken her into their holding room and tied her up, which had meant that there was no opportunity for the girl to employ her own tactics in creating slack on the ropes. And there were no sharp objects around her that she might somehow get hold of either. Evidently Church was quite the pro at holding hostages and didn't want to give her any opportunity to escape before he could use her as bait.
> 
> The brunette growled as she strained against the ropes, feeling her irritated skin cry out in protest at being used so roughly. Her head was still sore from where they had hit her earlier, her face numb from the slap that she had gotten when Church was busy filming his little video for Barney. But above all other things Mickey felt her anger bubbling in the pit of her stomach as she thought about the events that had lead up to her capture and the way in which she was being used as some sort of damsel in distress.
> 
> She had signed on for this mission without a second thought when she had been contact about it, despite the fact that her natural talents of disguise were a much better skill set that were not required. It hadn't fazed her at all to think that she was going to be working with two older men on this mission, for apparently her marksmanship was what they wanted. That and someone who was small and fast enough to rival Yang so that they could get in, get the job done and get out as quickly as possible. She hadn't noticed the holes in the plan, which should have jumped out like red flags. The whole thing had been one damn mess and because she was still seething mad at Barney she hadn't been paying any attention to what she had agreed to.
> 
> The whole thing had been a set up. Church had lured her into a trap for this exact purpose.
> 
> "You can stop struggling sweetheart. You're not going anywhere."
> 
> Dark eyes flashed upward as soon as she heard the voice and snarled, watching as Church leered at her from the doorway as he leaned heavily against the frame. The way he folded his arms across his chest and placed his weight on a single foot clearly showed how little of a threat he perceived her to be. After all, she was tied up tightly to a chair, a woman who was half his age and size, who therefore had to have less than half of the experience that he did in these situations. What possible harm could she do him even if she wanted to?
> 
> "I'd be counting my blessings if I were you," she hissed at him, pulling her body forward a little more to place some more strain on the ropes. "If I were able to move, you'd be a dead man."
> 
> Church laughed darkly at the defiance that flickered in the depths of her eyes, watching as the fires continued to burn. She was feisty, he'd certainly give her that. He had expected there to be much less of a fight in order to subdue her when he had initially planted all of the information for the mission and ensured that her resume was placed on top of the pile for Bonaparte to look at. But she'd given them quite the issue with taking her down, killing five of his men and injuring a sixth before they had finally managed to remove her weapon from her hands and knock her unconscious.
> 
> Pulling himself away from the door Church slowly began to wander into the room, looking down at Mikayla with the same lecherous grin that he had worn from the moment she had been conscious enough to make him out. Her natural feminine instinct told her to pull away and put as much space between herself and this man as possible. But her own stubborn nature refused to allow such a show of submissiveness while he was standing there, and so she maintained where she was. Her face, however, began to contort itself in a look of disgust.
> 
> "You've got spirit," Church told her as he took another step toward her. "I like spirit."
> 
> "Good for you. Go find it somewhere else."
> 
> He shook his head and clicked his tongue lightly at her. "Now, is that anyway to talk to the guy holding your life in his hands? You should really be more appreciative that I haven't snapped that pretty neck of yours already."
> 
> Despite herself, Mikayla rolled her eyes. "Threaten all you want, asshole. You and I both know that you won't kill me until Barney's somewhere close by and you can make him watch. You're not interested in me, just him."
> 
> "Do I sense a little bitterness in that tone of yours?" Church mocked, circling the chair as he observed the tension in her body grow at his taunt. "What's the matter? Wasn't the old man ever there for your dance recitals? Did he forget your birthday party when you were five?"
> 
> Her breathing was deep and deliberate as she attempted to push his words away from her, keeping her focus solely on making him talk. It was ridiculous, the amount of information this man had already given her when he thought he was just playing mind games. Even when she had been coming to, Mikayla had overheard him speaking to several of the men who were currently working under him about the plan that they were to engage as soon as they had radio contact with Barney. She wasn't stupid…but she was certainly angry, and Church wasn't helping the situation by attempting to egg her on.
> 
> "I'm an orphan," she told him firmly as her head snapped around to look at him with a growl. "My mother is dead and my father never existed. So like I said before, if you think that you're smart in picking me up and using me as bait for Barney Ross then I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed."
> 
> Church chuckled again, evidently amused by the show of resistance that he was earning from the brunette that sat before him. "Somehow, I think you might be wrong about that," he told her as he lowered his face until it hovered just in front of her own. "Very, very wrong."
> 
> But the amusement didn't spread to Mikayla. "I'm either going to spit in your eye or break your nose. Your choice."
> 
> His gaze seemed to harden a little as he continued to stare at her, clearly beginning to grow weary of her defiance. There was no denying the fact that he was really beginning to see the bits that she had inherited from her father now, for Barney Ross was just as stubborn and troublesome as his daughter was proving herself to be. Part of him was rather glad that she was female though, since she had been that much easier to subdue in the initial attack. Had she been a man then she might have put up a stronger defense and gotten away…though he couldn't forget the men that he had lost at her hand. She was just as deadly as her father was, albeit younger, but there was no team of Expendables standing behind her in defense.
> 
> Oh, how he was going to love making Barney suffer for all of the shit that he had been through, Church thought to himself as he pulled his face back from that of his captive and stuffed a hand into the pocket of his pants. There was something very sweet about the idea of revenge like that, especially since he knew that he was likely going to end up getting more than one bird with the proverbial stone that he planned to throw. As soon as he had Barney in his grip he was going to force the father to watch his child die, there was absolutely no question about that. But perhaps he might make death slow and agonizing for the both of them, forcing each to watch as the other began to slip away without being able to save them. Yes, this was an idea to consider, he thought.
> 
> "You've got guts, kid," he said to her, giving a bit of a shrug. "No brains, but guts."
> 
> "I've got brains enough to know that this little plan of yours is going to backfire."
> 
> Church frowned a little. "And what makes you think that, sweetheart?"
> 
> "You might have told Barney that he was supposed to come alone," she said, the corner of her lip curling slightly. "But you seem to have forgotten that you set me up to work with Trench and Yang. That means that Bonaparte still has me on file…and I happen to know that his list of clientele is quite extensive."
> 
> The bald man rolled his eyes a little, beginning to turn away. "You say that like it's something I should be concerned about."
> 
> "Oh, but it is."
> 
> He had taken all of three steps toward the door again when his travel came to a stop. Against his better judgement, Church felt draw into her words, his attentions almost captivated to the point of being forced to listen when she spoke.
> 
> "Bonaparte has been helping Barney with his team for years," Mikayla continued, her voice dropping slightly as her tone took a darker sound. "He knows the new recruits and the old ones, knows what they can do. Do you honestly think that guys like Yang and Trench are just going to let it go like that? The instant they find out that you've taken me as a hostage they'll be on their way to kick your bald ass into the furthest pit of hell that they can manage."
> 
> The tension rose in his shoulders as he stood there, absorbing the thought that he might perhaps have created more of a conflict for himself than he previously thought. It was true, Trench and Yang were a pair who had proven themselves to be fairly lethal in the past as well, but like everyone else they were beginning to show signs of aging. And why would they bother to come after her when that ambush should leave little room to think that she might have somehow survived? A brand new member of their team was someone they hadn't formed any sort of comradery with and so they would be fine to just leave her as it was.
> 
> His head turned slowly to glance over his shoulder. Even at that angle he could still make out the bruise that had begun to form over her eye from where she had been struck by one of his men during the making of the video that he had sent off. And in seeing the bruise, he could see the flames that danced wickedly in the depths of her eyes in an almost unnerving manner. But the ropes were still in place. She could not physically move. And her words were nothing more than that – words.
> 
> "You think you're pretty tough, huh?"
> 
> Mikayla smirked. "I've got  _you_  worried, haven't I?"
> 
> Church didn't respond. Instead he turned his head around and quickly marched out of the room and back into the dark tunnel that would lead him away from his captive. This time there were no more words shouted at his retreating form or sounds of struggle to accompany his exit. Instead there was only a stony silence as he contemplated the plan that he had already set in motion. Were their holes that he had not foreseen? But why would she be stupid enough to tell him about those holes when it would only make him consider fixing the problem?
> 
> _Damn it, the little minx is playing mind games with me._
> 
> Church gave his head a bit of a shake and picked up the pace of his steps. There were a million things that required his attention before the radio went live in the morning, and only so much time in which he could accomplish them all. And now that these other issues had been brought to his attention he knew that he would not be able to avoid going over the entire plan once more to ensure that there were no holes in which other rats might slip through. If Barney thought that he was somehow going to get help from an outside source after the instructions Church had left him, he was going to have another thing coming.
> 
> And that brat of his would soon realize just how wrong she was.


	7. A Little Help From My Friends

> Drummer's plan was simple enough. Each person knew what was required of them to make sure that everything ran as smoothly as possible until they could figure out where it was that they were going. They had packed up the weapons that they would need into the plane already, storing all of the necessarily equipment in the right spots to ensure that the team would be able to sit themselves in the cabin without complication until they reached their destination.
> 
> So of course, Barney had to shoot the plan to shit.
> 
> It was Gunnar who had woken shortly after one in the morning, his mind going over their plan too much to allow him to sleep the way some of the younger team members did. Perhaps it came from his personal ties to everything, he thought to himself. Even when he was having all of the drug issues that had once taken control of his life, there was always a little ray of sunshine in the odd time that Mikayla came into his life. Hell, he'd been there through the whole first bit of her life when Barney had first been struggling to choose the path of life that he would adopt on a more permanent basis. He'd watched her grow for at least the first five or six years of her life before things had changed.
> 
> That was when he had heard it – the sound of the car engine. Barney was clever enough to know that starting the engines of the plane would wake everyone and give him no opportunity to get out of the hangar before they were on his ass and attempting to open up some part of the plane, so he had opted to take the bike instead. As soon as he turned the engine over Gunnar was running in his direction, calling out to him in a feeble attempt to stop him before he did something stupid. But in true Barney Ross fashion, he simply gave Gunnar a look before he took off out the open door and into the darkness.
> 
> It hadn't taken long to rouse the others at that point. Though Barney hadn't taken the plane that had already been prepared, there had to be another one waiting for him somewhere else to use. Why else would he vanish so early in the morning before he was due to radio to Church? The trouble was, Doc had already called up a rather groggy Bonaparte to ask if he had aided Barney in some way with his escape and they had been rather disappointed with his answer. He had a backup plan, of this they were absolutely sure, but Bonaparte was not the other party who was involved.
> 
> "Damn it," Lee cursed to himself as he continued to pace back and forth across the floor of the hangar. "Why the hell would he go off like that when we had a plan?"
> 
> "This isn't just any other mission," Doc reminded him, scratching at the back of his neck. "If we were talking about rescuing some billionaire's daughter or something then things would be totally different. But this is Mickey we're talking about."
> 
> Smilee approached them, his arms folded tightly over his broad chest. "Drummer is on his way," he told the group that was slowly beginning to assemble at the bottom of the plane ramp. "I don't know what else we can do until he gets here."
> 
> Gunnar felt like punching something right about now. Everything had been planned out in a way that would likely have kept Church from knowing about their presence. Drummer was an expert on such things and he knew better than all of them how they were going to be able to avoid his radar. But now that Barney had fled, there was absolutely no way for the team to help with the rescue mission until they figured out where they were supposed to go. And if he hadn't gone to Bonaparte then who the hell had he called to help him?
> 
> The stress of having to wait around in order to decide their next move was evidently bothering some people more than others. Lee continued to pace back and forth across the floor so much that he threatened to start digging himself a groove with his constant movement, and the look on Gunnar's face warned anyone who might have approached him to reconsider their plan. Even Doc, who was normally fairly cool and collected in the tight situations that had become part of their daily lives was tense. The slamming that was coming from inside the plane could only be Caesar and Toll Road hard at work moving things around in an effort to occupy themselves from joining in the waiting game. But by the sounds of how loudly they were throwing the boxes, neither of them were pleased with the situation either.
> 
> _Damn it!_
> 
> If there had been somewhere nearby for Lee to punch out, he likely would have gone for it. What in the hell would make Barney so stupid as to think that he could handle this situation on his own? He was far too emotionally attached to this, more so than anything else he had ever come across since the two of them had started working together. He knew that he was going to be playing right into Church's hands and yet he went ahead anyway, fully away of the fact that in doing so he was leaving behind the only team in the world who had a shot in hell of bringing Mikayla back alive. Losing her to the likes of Church would be hard enough for them to handle, but the very thought of losing the two of them was enough to make even Lee's stomach churn violently. This was a personal mission, much like the one they had undertaken shortly after losing Billy. And he'd be damned if he allowed Church to get away with this.
> 
> "Where else could he have gone?" Luna asked them, standing with a hand on her hip as her eyes surveyed the group around her. "Think about it. Barney wouldn't have trusted too many people outside of this room to help him with something so personal. If he didn't call Bonaparte then he must have called someone else."
> 
> Lee nodded. "I would have thought Trench first off if he hadn't shown up with Drummer."
> 
> "But he did," Doc reminded him. "So who else have you guys been in contact with in the past few years?"
> 
> "Damn it, I don't know!" growled Christmas as he resumed his pacing.
> 
> Everyone fell silent as they began to feel the frustration and anger radiate off of the blade expert, uncertain of what they could say that might either calm him or help him to recall some distant name that he hadn't thought of in a long time. Obviously there was someone else. It was almost impossible for there not to be.
> 
> All of those who were standing around quickly jumped as they heard the violent clash of metal sound from behind them, turning sharply to find the source of the commotion at such an early hour. He hurried to kneel down and begin collecting the fallen objects, but Galgo offered them an apologetic smile and a nervous laugh when he saw all of the eyes that were suddenly upon him.
> 
> "I am sorry!" he said quickly, his hands hurrying to gather everything together again.
> 
> Rolling her eyes, Luna crossed the floor and knelt down to help him begin packing the box up again. How on earth it had come undone like that she would never know, since she was fairly certain that Thorn was the last person to use it and he was always very careful about fitting things back inside and locking it tightly. The empty clanging continued for a few more minutes until the last item had been set inside the box and the outside firmly latched once more. And as she rose to her feet, she handed the red metal box back to Galgo with a look.
> 
> "Next time, try not to make a mess of the tools, okay?"
> 
> "Son of a bitch…"
> 
> Luna turned back with a look of complete confusion written upon her face. That voice didn't belong to Lee, nor did it belong to Gunnar or Doc who both had turned themselves around to look away from Luna. Instead their eyes had fallen upon the person who stood halfway down the ramp of the plane, staring at Galgo as if he had just been struck by lightning. Toll Road just stared, his mouth slightly agape. His eyes were lit with recognition and yet his body remained completely immobile for what felt like an eternity before he bolted down the ramp and started running toward the phone that sat in the prep area near the back of the plan.
> 
> "What just happened?" Galgo asked, looking up at Luna for some kind of enlightenment.
> 
> "That's who he called!" Toll Road shouted.
> 
> He slammed his fingers against the phone repeatedly until the number was complete and he could bring the phone up to his ear. All it took was a nod from him and suddenly Caesar understood as well, joining in the cursing that still left everyone else completely oblivious to what the hell was happening.
> 
> "Would someone mind explaining what the-"
> 
> "Look at Galgo, man! What's he holding onto?"
> 
> All eyes once again turned to the Latino who clenched the red box to his chest as if he might drop it a second time under their gaze. "What?" he asked.
> 
> "Oh my God!"
> 
> "Son of a bitch!"
> 
> "I still don't get it!"
> 
> Lee resisted the urge to roll his eyes and simply turned to look at the younger recruits, knowing that they couldn't possibly know to whom they were currently referring. And how could they when they had only just joined the team a few months before? But now he understood, and everything was beginning to make perfect sense. Present company aside, there was only one other person aside from Bonaparte that Barney would have trusted enough to call for help in a situation like this because he knew that the older man would understand his situation with very few words being spoken.
> 
> "The bastard called Tool."
> 
> All at once the recognition settled over the older members of the group as they hurried to huddle around the phone that Toll Road held in his hand, hearing the ringer a little louder than before now that Caesar had joined him and prompted the use of the speaker phone button. Gunnar, Lee and Doc were all over there in a second, each showing their anxiety in a different manner as they waited for the phone to be answered on the other end. Of all the days when they needed to hear from Tool, this was perhaps the most important one.
> 
> Mars shook his head. "I still don't get it."
> 
> "Tool's an old friend, used to be part of the team," Caesar said shortly, his eyes never leaving the phone.
> 
> "He and Barney go way back," added Gunnar.
> 
> Lee looked up at the younger recruits. "And he might be the only other person Barney trusted enough to call."
> 
> The energy in the room shifted almost instantly. Every ear was tuned into the ringing of the phone as it continued, the only sound within the hangar as they all held their breath in anticipation. It sounded long and clear, followed by a few moments of silence. Then it repeated again. And again. By the fourth ring, no one was sure that there would be a response at all. The morale was once again beginning to fall. This might be their only shot.
> 
> "Toll Road, do you have any idea what time it is?"
> 
> A sigh of relief filtered through the room as Gunnar stepped up, bowing his head a little toward the mouthpiece of the phone. "Sorry to call so late, Tool but we've got an emergency."
> 
> "Has Barney contacted you recently?" Lee put in quickly.
> 
> A groan sounded on the other end as Tool struggled to wake his brain and fully enter the conversation. "Yeah, he called me up late last night. Said he needed to meet a girl and did I have a plane he could use? Truth be told I was a little confused about the girl-"
> 
> "Look man, we got an emergency," interrupted Doc.
> 
> "What happened?"
> 
> "Church wants Barney dead."
> 
> "Church?" he asked, suddenly a little more alert. "What in the hell has he got to do with this?"
> 
> Toll Road lifted the phone a little closer to his mouth. "Long story, man. Did Barney did you where he was going?"
> 
> Tool was quick to reply. "No, no – he didn't say anything about a location. Just that he needed it and didn't know when he'd be back. But you know me, I've got a GPS on that plane so that I can keep an eye on it at all times."
> 
> "We need to know where he's going," Lee said, signalling for the others to start boarding the plane in preparation.
> 
> Luna turned on her heel faster than the others and ran off to inform those who weren't present, leaving Smilee and Mars to nod in understanding to one another before they too began to move some of the things that had yet to be placed in the cargo hold. There was no time to waste at this point. As soon as Drummer arrived they would be in the air and headed to whatever location they were told. But they had to grab Thorn to make sure that the proper radio connection was set up, just so they could keep in contact with Tool about the coordinates of his plane. If they lost that, they'd be sunk.
> 
> "Christmas, what's the problem?"
> 
> Lee pressed his lips together tightly. "Church has Mickey."
> 
> Silence fell on the other end of the phone.
> 
> "I'm coming with you."
> 
> "No," Lee said quickly.
> 
> "Lee, I'm not going to just sit here while my girl is being held hostage," Tool insisted.
> 
> With an impatient wave of his hand, Lee took the phone from Toll Road, leaving him free to make his way over toward where Yang and Trench had appeared. Caesar followed closely behind, ready to fill in the details of what they had just learned. But as soon as his fingers wrapped around the outside of the phone, Lee removed the speaker and brought it up to his ear. With only Doc around now, he lowered his voice to a quieter level.
> 
> "We need you here," Lee told him, lifting his eyes to look at Doc who nodded silently in response. "We don't know what kind of shape anyone is going to be in when we get back…or who is even going to make it."
> 
> There needed to be no further explanation. This mission was suicidal for a number of reasons, not least of which was the fact that Church had intimate details about them all at his disposal. Even the younger team members who had only been around for a few months were no longer safe, as Lee knew that he couldn't guarantee what kind of information Church could have about them either. And while he appreciated the feelings that Tool was experiencing because they were not far removed from his own, he also knew that it had been several years since Tool had last taken a field job that had left him shaken beyond repair. Having him around would only put him in harm's way. No, he would absolutely hate it, but he would be better off waiting for them to return.
> 
> And evidently, Tool knew that himself.
> 
> "What do you need?"
> 
> Lee smirked. "First, I'm going to need the location of that plane."


	8. Keeping Secrets

> Once again it seemed like everything was set. Drummer had taken full control of the cockpit and was in constant communication with Tool down on the ground to make sure that they were headed in the right direction while the rest of the team sat on either side of the cabin in silence. Only Doc dared to move back and forth between the two places, quietly communicating with Drummer for a few minutes before he would return to his seat and cast a glance down at the others. He didn't need to speak for them to understand. They were on track, but they had absolutely no idea of what they were supposed to be prepared for when they landed. Barney was going to beat them to the location, there was absolutely no denying that.
> 
> But what would have happened by the time they got there?
> 
> The silence in the plane was almost unbearable. The original members of Barney's team were all on the edge of their seats, the tension in their bodies evident in the bulging veins and muscles that showed in their arms. And though they wanted to speak up, it seemed that none of the newer recruits had yet figured out how they were to broach the subject that sat at the front of everyone's minds. A look was shared between them as they quietly begged one another to be the first to speak, glancing first at Mars and Galgo who instantly shook their heads and turned to Thorn. But Thorn wasn't interested in the idea either, and quickly turned to cast his gaze between Luna and Smilee, who sat side by side against the metal wall of the cabin and instantly turned to the other.
> 
> Well, they knew it wasn't going to be easy no matter which one of them spoke. This whole thing obviously went a whole lot deeper than Barney. The question was, just how much deeper?
> 
> Luna shifted a little against the hard metal of the bench on which she sat. "So," she started slowly. "Before we all get killed over this-"
> 
> "You didn't have to come," Lee cut her off quickly, with a dark look that would unnerve almost anyone. "You could have stayed behind."
> 
> But Luna continued on as if she hadn't heard him, altogether ignoring the look that he gave her. "Who is she?"
> 
> Nobody jumped up to respond as every set of eyes fell down to the floor or their clasped hands in order to avoid catching Luna's steady gaze. A majority of them had gotten the hint of what this mission involved when Drummer had first arrived at the hanger with Trench and Yang in tow, but nobody had been forth coming with any other answers after that. They treated the entire thing like it was some sort of taboo subject to breach, for they wouldn't even say it with one another around for fear of someone overhearing their conversation. But enough was enough. Now that they had all chosen to rush head-on into this dangerous new mission, they at least deserved to know what and who they were putting their lives on the line for. They weren't just outsiders this time. They were a team.
> 
> And Luna would not be swayed by their silence. "Hey, it's one thing to have some random girl show up at the hangar with Barney and then storm off when she gets mad at him," she started, her eyes narrowing further as she looked across the opposite bench at each of the older men. "But when he freaks out and bolts because this girl was kidnapped, this obviously goes way above and beyond personal. So what's the deal?"
> 
> Again she was met with silence. Only when she heard a slow exhalation of air and the sound of Doc's head falling back against the wall of the plane did she turn her eyes to a single target. "It was about twenty-four years ago-"
> 
> "Barney won't appreciate this," Lee warned him with a dark growl.
> 
> "Yeah, well Barney ain't here," Doc countered. "And if I was them I'd want to know what the hell was going on too."
> 
> Though he was unhappy with the decision, Lee didn't say anything further. Instead he folded his arms tightly over his chest and leaned back as far as the walls of the plane would allow, turning his head to look off toward the cockpit instead. When Doc was satisfied that he wouldn't be interrupted again, he looked back at Luna and continued.
> 
> "We were on our way back from a mission, just like normal. But the plane we'd been using had been banged up pretty badly and Barney had smashed his hand to shit. We didn't have much of a choice, so we landed in a little town somewhere in the corner of Spain."
> 
> Luna nodded, settling back to hear the whole ordeal.
> 
> "I had to basically force Barney into a hospital to have his hand looked at," Doc said, rolling his eyes a little at the memory. "And that's where he met a young nurse by the name of Blanca Valdez. We weren't there long, but by the time we got the plane up in the air again I could tell that he wasn't really thinking of getting home anymore. So the two of them kept in contact…he visited whenever he could…and before we knew it, he found out that she was pregnant."
> 
> "This life isn't for everyone," Gunnar put in, his fingers twitching a little as he looked over toward Doc. "You either need to be in or you need to get out and stay out. But for a while there, Barney thought maybe he'd be able to have a foot in both worlds."
> 
> As they established eye contact, Doc nodded. "It wasn't working out well. He was missing all of the important things that a father ought to see. Her first steps, her first words…everything that would slowly start to establish Mickey as being…well, Mickey. Pretty soon she started to not care about the fact that her father was supposed to be coming 'round for her birthday or Christmas. But when he missed her sixteenth birthday-"
> 
> "That was the last straw."
> 
> All eyes then fell on the speaker, almost surprised to see who it was that had decided to enter into the conversation despite his initial resistance to the idea. The displeasure was still written plainly across Lee's face as he stared down at his clasped hands, his fingers still filled with tension. It was almost as if the memories themselves were a source of anger for him, the way he seemed to utter that last sentence.
> 
> "Mickey worked her ass off so that she could graduate from high school early and do something that would make Barney really proud of her. She was supposed to graduate on her birthday, and even though he promised that he would make it, we were on another mission. We missed the entire thing by a matter of hours. When we finally got there Mickey wanted nothing to do with him and told him to leave. She was tired of always being his second choice."
> 
> "I always thought he kept in touch with Blanca," Gunnar added quietly. "Even if Mickey wouldn't talk to him…"
> 
> "I don't know," responded Lee. "But had I known that she was sick-"
> 
> "We'd have been there, man," Caesar told him reassuringly.
> 
> Silence once again filled the cabin. Nobody was entirely sure what they could say after that. Family always made things complicated, but this seemed to be a whole new level of ridiculous that the team now had to contend with. There was evidently no real love between Mickey and her father, at least on the part of the daughter, but there had to be more to the story than that. Mickey had seemed so confident that Barney wouldn't bother coming after her when Church opted to use her as bait. Yet even she couldn't have ignored the obvious personality traits that made up the man they knew as Barney Ross. If he had willingly put his life on the line in order to come after them when they had been captured by Stonebanks, Luna knew there was no possible way for him to ignore the summons that Church had left in his video.
> 
> Not when the life of his own flesh and blood was on the line.
> 
> For a moment, Luna contemplated her own thoughts. "Were they ever happy?" she asked carefully.
> 
> "For a little while," Doc nodded, a small smile coming to his lips as the memories began to surface. "I remember the day Barney found out about Mickey. I don't think I've ever seen him so stunned before in my life."
> 
> The group of older men chuckled in unison at the idea of their leader being so uncertain about anything. None of them had been present that day, but they could only imagine just how uncomfortable he was at the idea of fatherhood. Save for the times that they had each spent with Mikayla growing up, they had never known Barney to really take to any other child that they had come across. They always seemed to make him a little nervous…and a little sad as well.
> 
> "But you could tell," continued Doc. "You could tell that the instant he made it to the hospital and held onto her for the first time that he was in love with her. Mickey had this ability to just capture his heart and hold onto it as if her life depended on it."
> 
> "That was the problem though," Gunnar interrupted, scowling a little. "Barney loved that kid so much that he didn't want her anywhere near the life he had made for himself. That's why he kept her and Blanca at arm's length."
> 
> It was a problem that Lee had come to understand well. Being Expendable meant long days away from home where there was always a risk of not coming back, and when he had been with Lacy he hadn't wanted her to really know what it was that he did in the time that they were apart. It wasn't like you could really go into detail if you were trying to describe this job on a dating website or anything. And being upfront was out of the question because you could hardly expect someone to fully understand what it meant to be a member of the team. In a way, this team was the only family that they had come to know. And though Barney had sort of managed to have one foot in each of those worlds for a little while the stress and strain of his commitments had taken their toll on his relationship with his daughter.
> 
> Blanca had been a little better able to understand it though, Lee remembered. Though she had clearly been heartbroken at the idea of raising her daughter without a father figure who was constantly around, she had accepted Barney's need to keep the two of them out of his life in that regard. He had always wanted something better for Mickey, and that meant making sure that his little girl never came to know how many people her father had killed on the job. She wasn't supposed to know how much money he was quietly putting away so that he could send it off to her mother to help with her finances, or even how many lives he had ended up saving because they had gone and taken down the bad guy. And that had meant that he would forever be unable to be the hero that almost every father wanted to be for his daughter.
> 
> Instead, he was the bad guy.
> 
> Lee sighed, his face scrunching up into a dark frown. "How did she even get involved in this anyway?"
> 
> "What do you mean?" Smilee asked, clearly confused.
> 
> "Barney never told her about what he did," said Lee. "Anytime we saw her, we were always weapon free and dressed in civilian clothing so that things still looked normal. We were just some of his friends."
> 
> "Friends who probably saw her more than her dad did," Toll Road pointed out.
> 
> But Lee ignored him, giving his head a shake as he turned to look over at Trench. "You said Bonaparte gave you her name?"
> 
> Trench nodded. "Same as usual."
> 
> "Sounds to me like Daddy's Little Girl has some secrets of her own," Smilee commented. And when he felt the heavy glares of the others upon him, he just shrugged in response. "Think about it, guys. If she supposedly didn't know anything about Barney and the team, then what happened? It's not like Church just hunted her down and kidnapped her. He laid a trap, set her up and then took her hostage. She was on a mission just like the ones we take on."
> 
> Trench held his hands in the air. "I didn't even know he had a daughter."
> 
> Lee frowned, looking at him in confusion. "Weren't you guys on the same team with Stonebanks?"
> 
> At this, the larger man shook his head and leaned forward so that his elbows pressed into the tops of his knees. "Barney and I worked together with Stonebanks, but I left before he officially started the team."
> 
> Well, that certainly explained the lack of tattoo, Luna thought to herself, considering that every other person who had become part of the team had invested in the piece of body art. Hell, even Conrad Stonebanks had had one, and he was more than happy to flaunt it in front of them when Barney had initially captured him. But that problem had been rather quickly remedied. Stonebanks was no longer in a position to show off his tattoo or taunt Barney's mental state.
> 
> "But trust me," Trench continued quietly. "If I had known that she was Barney's kid I'd have found someone else."
> 
> They had created quite a mess for themselves, Barney and Mikayla. And in true Expendable fashion it seemed that the team was going to be responsible for getting him out of it before either of them got hurt. There was no doubt in any of their minds that Church wanted to hurt Barney bad, but just how far would he take it? Would his execution be immediate? No, that didn't sound likely. Holding Mikayla hostage meant that he had plans for the both of them, and knowing what they did of Church led them to believe that both of them would be made to suffer a lot of physical and mental torture before he would finish with them. That gave them a window that they couldn't pin point at all, much to their frustration.
> 
> All they could do now was hope and pray that Barney didn't do anything completely stupid before they got there.


	9. Heartbeat

> For reasons unknown to her, Church had eventually decided that leaving her to sit in the chair was no longer an acceptable option. A few hours after their previous conversation Mikayla found herself being roughly handled by a couple of his men as they removed the ropes that bound her and forced her to her feet. A short debate between them had followed as they did their best to prevent her from evading their grasp, but the small amounts of food and water that she had been allowed since her capture had left her struggling to support her own weight. Of course, that didn't mean that she didn't get one good smack in before they subdued her again. If she hadn't broken that guy's nose, she'd be surprised.
> 
> Down a short tunnel they had gone and into a darkness that Mikayla was beginning to grow accustomed to before she could hear a heavy metal door pulled aside and a different sort of light filtered into her vision. They threw her to the floor without apology and quickly backed away lest they be attacked again, slamming the door with such force that her ears began to ring from the sound. A groan fluttered past her lips as she tried to push herself into a sitting position. Already she could feel the bruises forming on her arms from where they had held her, her wrists stinging bitterly to rejoice in the freedom they now had from the rough contact of the rope. And as her eyes began to adjust to the new light in the room, Mickey realized that despite the slight decline she had felt when they were moving her, she was still above ground somewhere.
> 
> There was a window in this room as well, through which she could see the beams of moonlight slip through the heavy metal bars that lined the frame and spread across the floor. It was high enough to be out of reach, but if the room sat itself in the right manner she might still be able to escape. Then again…Church had proven himself to be a resourceful person thus far in his pursuit of revenge, and so he wouldn't have been foolish enough to make the mistake of leaving her unbound and free if he believed there was a good chance of her escaping. No, there would be something or someone on the other side of the door. The window however…
> 
> She had to try.
> 
> But first came the task of getting herself to her feet, and right now it was proving to be a far more difficult task than usual. Very slowly she began to drag her body toward the wall, fingernails digging into the cold stones beneath her to find every edge that she could. It was a slow process, painfully so, but her legs were not yet cooperating with her and so Mikayla was forced to continue on as she was. Inch by inch she made her way across the floor of her newest prison cell until she could press her hands flush against the call, shuffling her body sideways to find the corner of the room. Using two walls would be easier, she reasoned. She would be able to use the resistance that was created in her hands by pushing against each wall until she was on her feet again and better able to judge the distance between herself and the window. She took a moment to close her eyes, inhaling deeply to try and center her mind for the task at hand. Damn, this was going to hurt.
> 
> Gritting her teeth in anticipation against the pain that was to come, Mickey shot both hands out to the walls on either side of her body and instantly felt the tension spread from her fingertips to her shoulders and all the way down to her toes. Her legs were struggling to shift, but she managed to keep them underneath her as they slowly absorbed the weight that was being placed upon them. Her back fell against the wall the instant she was high enough to consider moving her hands, her chest rising and falling in a steady pant from the effort. Damn, it should not have been that hard, she thought to herself. But how long had she been a hostage now? A few days at least, too many for her to remember.
> 
> Dark eyes immediately glanced up at the window as she tried to steady her breathing, looking to judge just how far she was going to have to try to jump or climb if she was to reach the bars at all. She was a fairly tall woman at about five feet and ten inches, but the window was significantly higher than that, and she doubted that even a professional gymnast could jump that high without some kind of help. Well shit, that wasn't going to help her.
> 
> The sound of the shift metal forced her head to turn back toward the door, watching as the artificial light from the end of the corridor slowly began to spill into her prison cell. She could hear voices now, men who laughed and taunted at the sounds of struggle that also filtered into the room.
> 
> "Hey sweetheart."
> 
> "Church."
> 
> There were no warmth in the way that she said his name. Her tone was dark and filled with warning, hoping that perhaps that might be enough to keep him from coming any closer to where she stood. She could barely make out his bald figure in the doorway as he leaned against the framework, for they hadn't opened it wide enough to present her with any opportunity for freedom.
> 
> "I was afraid that you might start getting a little lonely in here, so I brought you a friend."
> 
> They pulled the door aside just long enough for another body to be thrown in to join her, a larger form that groaned at the harsh impact of the cold stone floor. From where he stood on the other side, she could feel the made grin that was likely spread across Church's smug face.
> 
> "Coward," she hissed, forcing her body to take those few steps forward.
> 
> But she wasn't fast enough to make it toward him before the door was slammed shut once more, and the darkness surrounded her once again. She crossed the distance of the room with much better speed than she had anticipated but quickly found exactly what she had dreaded. The door was indeed made of cold steel, which would mean that escaping through there would require help from the outside. So instead of focusing on the barrier in her way, the young woman turned instead to the coughing mass who now occupied the floor space at her feet. She didn't need to guess at who it was that had been so unceremoniously thrown in there with her. There was only one person who was stupid enough to get himself into this mess.
> 
> "Mickey?"
> 
> The young woman did her best not to flinch at the sound of her old nickname coming from his lips, but it was harder to do that she might have liked. She looked down at him as he struggled to regain his senses, blinking quickly to either clear up his vision or try to find his center of balance once again. Even if he had surrendered to Church willingly as ordered she knew that the maniac wasn't just going to take him hostage without giving him some form of a beating. After all, revenge was the only thing Church seemed to have on his mind.
> 
> "I told you not to come after me," she told him, feeling a little of her anger begin to bubble in the pit of her stomach. "Why didn't you listen to me?"
> 
> Barney groaned, pressing himself backward until his back came into contact with the wall. "When the hell did you say that?"
> 
> Mikayla rolled her eyes, slowly lowering herself to the floor so that she could better look at her new cell mate. "In that video he used to bait you here, remember? I said that you wouldn't be stupid enough to come after me because you didn't care."
> 
> "That's not tr-"
> 
> "It doesn't matter," she said dismissively.
> 
> "But it does-"
> 
> "Just drop it, Barney."
> 
> He leaned his head back against the wall and lifted a hand to touch his temple, hissing in pain as he made contact. Even in the dim lighting that they had she could see that he was bleeding rather well, both from his hairline and from the one corner of his lip. One of his eyes was already beginning to swell up from what was likely a punch to the face, and she was fairly certain that he wasn't wearing any sort of body armour at all. How long had he been here? Regardless of how long, it certainly looked like Church had done a number on him already.
> 
> Without hesitation her fingers reached down to the edge of her shirt and pulled the material up over her head, leaving only the camisole that she had worn underneath it to cover her upper body. She worked to rip the material into a few pieces, discarding some of them beside her and wadding up another piece in her hands before she crept a little closer to Barney and took his face gently in her hands. As gently as she could, she began to dab the soft fabric of the shirt against the corner of his lip to erase the trail of blood that had slowly trickled from the corner of his mouth and down his chin. It didn't look too bad, she thought to herself. It was the injury to his head that worried her a little more.
> 
> Barney turned his head a little, surveying her face with the less swollen of his eyes. "Did he hurt you?" he asked quietly.
> 
> But the young woman just shook her head. "No," she murmured. "Kept me on a short food and water leash, but he didn't hurt me."
> 
> "What's this?"
> 
> His one hand had come to rest lightly on her wrist as he tried to erase the blood from his face, and though his fingers were considerably rougher than her own she could feel the softness in his touch as he brushed over the sensitive skin. "Rope burn," Mickey explained. "He kept me tied to a chair for a while – thought maybe he'd be able to play mind games with me or something."
> 
> Barney didn't immediately respond, but she could feel the tension grow in his body as she spoke. She winced a little as his fingers momentarily tightened around her wrist, but he quickly caught himself and let go before any further harm could be done. In the silence that now fell between them Mikayla took the opportunity to survey the older man once more, ignoring the cool brush of air that caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end. His lip would be swollen for a little while, as would his eye. It was only the blood that fell from his head that she needed to look at now, and since head injuries often looked worse than they were due to the thin skin that was available for protection she hoped that it was significantly better than it appeared.
> 
> Shifting her sitting position on the floor Mickey threw the soiled piece of fabric aside and picked up another, proceeding to lightly skim her fingers through his hair to try and better see the damage that had been done. The skin had definitely been broken by something, she thought as she gently touched the piece of material to his head. And it looked like he was hit with something a little stronger than just a fist as well based on how long and deep the gash in his head was.
> 
> Damn, Barney had done a number on himself this time.
> 
> Mikayla sighed softly. "What the hell are you even doing here, Barney?"
> 
> The old man shifted himself, turning a little to blink up at her. "I came to get you."
> 
> "He's not going to let me go," the girl reminded him a little bitterly. "And he's definitely not letting you go either. I don't know what you did but you really pissed him off."
> 
> "He used to work for the CIA," coughed Barney, a grimace spreading across his face when she pressed the cloth to his head again. "Hired us to run a couple of missions, take down some bad guys. The same stuff I've always been doing."
> 
> Mickey didn't comment. She was well aware of the "stuff" he had been doing since long before she had been born, and that had been the cause of the rift between them. In the eyes of a little girl her father had always loved his job more than he had ever loved her. So she had thought that maybe, just maybe…
> 
> She shook her head, pushing those thoughts aside. "Did he hit you anywhere else?"
> 
> His hand moved slowly in response to her question, coming to rest on his lap. On instinct her one hand dropped away from his head and immediately went to touch his abdomen, adding small amounts of pressure as they danced around to feel for any signs of broken bones. Barney groaned a little at the contact but otherwise didn't seem to be too discomforted. He'd likely have bruises, but it didn't appear that anything had been broken.
> 
> A soft sigh of relief fell from her lips as slowly continued to double check her assessment. Everything appeared to be fine, she thought. She could feel some of his bones a little better than perhaps was healthy, but it didn't seem that Church had broken him open yet. As she got to his upper ribs however, Mikayla could feel Barney's heart beating strongly in his chest and paused for a moment to let the steady beat settle into her fingertips. It was something she had done quite a bit as a child when he had come to see her, just sit in his lap or lay across his chest with her hand pressed to his heart. It had been her way of assuring herself that he was still alive, that his heart was still going strong despite the numerous dangers he insisted on placing himself in. Her mother had never hidden the truth from her while she was growing up, and so Mikayla had endured nightmares for a long while about the ways in which her father could be suffering at the hands of bad men.
> 
> Mikayla became so caught up in the memory that she almost forgot of where she currently was. Her eyes grew wide and her breathing began to pick up a little as she relived those moments in her mind, remembering the fear she had felt when she saw his back retreating out the door every time, scared that perhaps that might have been the last time she saw him alive. Even in his slightly disoriented state Barney noticed the change in her, and the hand that had been sitting in his lap was quickly brought up to cover her smaller hand and press her palm more firmly against his chest.
> 
> "It's okay, Mick," he told her as gently as he could in his gruff tone. "It's okay."
> 
> "No," she told him quickly, pulling her hand away as if his touch burned her skin. "No, it's not okay. You have no idea what I went through as a kid because of what you do. This is exactly the kind of thing I was worried about."
> 
> Before she could be stopped Mikayla pushed herself unsteadily to her feet and moved herself away from Barney's reach, using the wall to balance the weight of her body as it struggled to so what she was asking of it. Her chest was heaving now, her emotions fighting against her to be released for the first time since she had struggled to deal with her mother's passing all on her own. She'd kept them under control while she trained, that had been easy enough to do when her anger had pushed all of the others aside in order to take the top spot. But now that she was confronted with the very thing that had stolen so much sleep from her in her youth, Mikayla was having a harder time dealing with it then she should have.
> 
> "Mickey," he called to her gently, struggling to shift his body against the wall. "Mickey talk to me."
> 
> The brunette paused for a moment, heavily considering whether or not to tell him the truth. She didn't owe him anything, the voice in the back of her head reminded her. He hadn't been there. He didn't care.
> 
> "You and the guys used to come by and visit every so often, maybe two or three times a year," the young woman began. "And for a while that was okay because at least I got to see you. But then they'd come by to see Mom and I, and you wouldn't be with them. You were busy but you sent your love, they used to tell me. And as soon as I was old enough to ask Mom what it was that you did that kept you away for so long I was always scared – scared that every time you left to go back to 'work' I'd never see you again."
> 
> Wisely, Barney just sat there and listened without interruption.
> 
> "You promised me that you'd always be there if I needed you. But you weren't. Mom got sick and I wrote to you because she asked me to, but you never showed up. You never came back."
> 
> "You didn't want me back."
> 
> "I was sixteen years old," she told him angrily, turning to look down upon his slumped frame with her dark brown orbs aflame. "I was hurt by all of the empty promises that you had made to me over the years and I'd finally had enough. I didn't actually think that you'd abandon us like that. I couldn't have cared less if you never spoke to me again, but you broke my mother's heart."
> 
> She'd never be able to forgive him for that. Blanca's health had taken a turn after that, and though she had done her best to tell her daughter that she was going to be alright and just needed a little time to herself, she was ultimately keeping from her the real reason that she was beginning to lose strength in her body. Mickey hadn't known about the cancer that had developed in her lungs. A woman who had never smoked a day in her life had fallen ill with a disease because she had picked up a second job in addition to her nursing responsibilities to ensure that her daughter was taken care of. The job at the bars had subjected her to unclean and unsafe working conditions, but none had proven to be as deadly as the second hand smoke she inhaled for years. It hadn't taken too long before she was barely able to move around the house before she was short of breath and forced to give up her job at the hospital altogether.
> 
> And with all those years of pent up anger and heartache already wearing at her, Mickey had done the only thing she could think of doing. She used her aggression to train her body and channeled it toward more constructive outlets so that her mother did not have to bear the brunt of her distain. So when things had gotten really tight for the two of them, it hadn't taken much for Mickey to remember the more painful parts of her past and use them to her advantage.
> 
> Barney sighed. "If I had known that she was sick-"
> 
> "But you didn't," she said quickly, cutting him off once more as her body slowly began to give in and slide against the wall back to the floor. "And now she's gone. So it hardly matters anymore."
> 
> Her arms folded themselves over her chest as a sort of protective shield as she turned her head away from him and squeezed her eyes shut against the pain that threatened to invade her heart once more. She thought that she had been able to put all of this behind her. But the past had a way of creeping up when you least expected it, and she knew now that her mother had been right all along, loath as she was to admit it. One day, she had been told, she would need to face her father again.
> 
> It was the soft touch to her cheek that caused a gasp to fall from her lips in shock, her body jumping at the sudden contact that had formed between the two. Somehow, without her notice, Barney had shifted himself against the wall until he sat a little closer and could reach out to touch his daughter's cheek with the same gentle touch that had once been so familiar to her. Dark eyes looked over at him with uncertainty as she waited. For what, she didn't really know, but waiting seemed like the best option.
> 
> "I can't fix the past," he told her as he brushed his thumb lightly over the apple of her cheek. "But I promise…I'm going to get you out of here…even if it's the last thing I do."
> 
> Mikayla closed her eyes and shook her head. "Barney you can't promise-"
> 
> "I can, and I do," he argued firmly. "I won't let him hurt you, Mickey. Not while I'm still here."
> 
> All at once, it was like something inside of her had snapped. For the first time in a very long time the young woman found herself fighting back tears and quickly pushed herself toward her father, slipping her arms around his chest to help pull her body closer. Her cheek was pressed into his abdomen when he returned the gesture and carefully wrapped his own arms protectively around her, holding her as tightly as his body would allow. From there, she could not only feel the beating of his heart, but she could hear it too. And though she was now far older than she had once been, the feeling was oddly comforting to her. As she had in her youth, her fear of losing her father was temporarily laid to rest with the slow rise and fall of his chest and the steady beating of his heart.
> 
> "You know, I always wanted something better for you," he muttered down to her. "But in the end it didn't matter. You ended up being just like me anyway."
> 
> Despite herself, Mickey smiled. "Is that such a bad thing?"
> 
> A chuckle rumbled through Barney's chest. "I don't know yet, kid. I really don't know."
> 
> The two of them sat together like that for quite some time before Mikayla finally pulled herself away and managed to convince Barney that he needed to try and rest. The lack of furniture in their holding room would mean that he was likely to spend a rather uncomfortable night on the floor, for which his body wouldn't thank him when the morning came. But after assuring him that she worked better at night, he finally laid himself down and drifted off into an uneasy slumber, leaving Mickey alone with her thoughts. Though the bond between them seemed to be closer than it had previously been she knew that she would need to figure out a plan of action quickly if she was to spare either of them any further pain at the hands of their captor. He would have done as Church demanded and come alone, which meant that she could not necessarily count on the rest of the team to aid them…though she didn't doubt that Doc, Christmas and Gunnar were probably trying to find them even now.
> 
> He woke with a start quite a few times as he drifted in and out of consciousness, and each time the young woman was quick to reassure him that she was alright. That seemed to be his only concern when his eyes flew open, and so she placed herself where she knew he would see her the next time. There was no point in letting him worry, though he seemed to be much better off if she had a hand on his arm or his shoulder. Almost as if he could still sense the continual contact and that alone was enough to put him at ease.
> 
> As the evening hours slowly began to give way into the daylight, Mikayla's mind was still anxiously turning. She was running out of time before Church and his men would return for Barney to do further harm to him, and she didn't doubt that they would soon be coming. If the grudge that he held was a deep as she had been lead to believe then Barney's life was in far greater danger than her own. And without the team to back them up, Mickey was the only person who potentially stood between Barney and certain death.
> 
> She had only just begun to find her father again. She wasn't going to lose him now.


	10. Escape Plan

> It had been some early hour of the morning when the door had opened once more and several of Church’s men had rushed inside to gather Barney from his place on the floor and forcibly drag him away. Despite her best efforts to get to him and perhaps spare him from further harm, Mikayla had been held fast by two men who had been sent in with the sole purpose of restraining her in mind. Even as she struggled in their grasp and called to them to take her in his place she knew that her pleas would fall upon deaf ears. Church was far too enthralled with her reaction to take note of her words, and he smirked in triumph at the door until Barney was far enough away that Mikayla couldn’t cross the distance before the door was once again slammed in her face. It was hopeless, and she knew that as she pounded her fists weakly against the metal door. Yet she continued to do so until eventually the ache in her arms became too much and she leaned heavily against it for support.
> 
> She had been waiting anxiously since that time for him to be returned to their holding cell, praying that he might be brought back alive for reasons she didn’t yet understand. Church was far too arrogant to kill him right away, he’d proven that when he had thrown the older man’s battered frame into the room the night before. But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t currently torturing Barney within an inch of his life at that very moment, and the only reason the old man was in that position was because he had come to save her. Was it a stupid idea? Oh hell, it was perhaps one of the worst ideas he had ever come up with. But regardless, she still felt partially responsible.
> 
> Back and forth in painfully slow and (anxious) steps did Mikayla cross the distance of her prison as the minutes gave way into hours, pausing for every bit of sound that she heard on the other side of the door. Each time she was met with disappointment. Even if she had some clue of how this place was laid out she’d be in a much better position to do something than she currently was.
> 
> Finally after what felt like an eternity of waiting, the door finally began to open again. Mikayla positioned herself against the wall and waited for the instant that there was enough room for her to move, but was swiftly blocked off by a man nearly twice her size who jumped into the room with his gun at the ready. Evidently Church had suspected that she would not be easily dissuaded from escaping and had prepped all of his men on how to handle her. With her hands slowly raised into the air she took a few steps backward, putting a safe distance between herself and the man who literally held her life in his hands. Even when they once again threw Barney’s bloody and battered frame in to join her, the young woman did not move until she knew that the gun was no longer aimed at her chest.
> 
> But as soon as the door was closed and they were safely locked inside again, she flew to his side.
> 
> “Damn it,” she cursed under her breath as her dark eyes began their cursory observation. “I’ll kill that son of a bitch, I swear.”
> 
> Barney coughed, gasping for air. “You shouldn’t be using…..that kind of language,” he chastised.
> 
> Mickey rolled her eyes. “Don’t even start with me, old man.”
> 
> Damn it, she thought. Without knowing what had been done to him she couldn’t be sure of what to be looking for, and truthfully she didn’t think she’d ever find it under all of the blood that now painted his skin and clothing. Already she could see hints of bruises beginning to form on his face in the areas that were swollen and she didn’t doubt for an instant that his hand was broken again just by the way that his fingers sat crookedly. There was nothing in the room to help her attend to him either. No running water or cloth or anything else.
> 
> But as she continued to look him over and gently push aside the sections of clothing that still clung to his body, Mikayla’s eyes instantly widened when she reached his chest and her hands flew in a hurry to remove the last piece of clothing that remained on her upper body. The cut was deep and round, evidently carved out of his body at a torturously slow rate. She’d seen these sorts of wounds from a few of her jobs in the Middle East, where an underground drug lord liked to mark the victims who came too close to finding him with a mark that would eventually kill them because of the amount of blood it released from the body and the lack of food, water and shelter that the victims later had when they were dumped in the hot desert sun.
> 
> How Church had gotten hold of this information she didn’t know. All that Mickey was concerned about was stopping the bleeding with what precious material she had left to offer. There was nothing to shield her from the prying eyes of men anymore, save for the black material of her bra. Her abdominals, sides, back and shoulders were now completely exposed. But even as the first of the shivers began to run along her skin and cause her to quiver she never allowed herself to make a sound. Barney was in rough shape, rougher than perhaps his body could now handle that he had progressed in age. And for now that was to be her main priority.
> 
> “Did you see anything when they took you?” she asked, partially hoping to distract him from his pain while she struggled to formulate a plan of escape. “Anything that looked like an exit?”
> 
> Unfortunately, Barney gave his head a little bit of a shake. “No,” he admitted. “Not unless you count…small windows that are…too high to reach.”
> 
> The brunette cursed lightly under her breath. “There’s got to be a way,” she grumbled, looking around the room again in case she had missed something from the million other times that she had repeated the same movement.
> 
> “Maybe there isn’t-“
> 
> “No,” Mikayla interrupted sharply. “I refuse to think that I’ve been beaten by a smart-ass cue ball, alright? We’re getting out of here somehow.”
> 
> Barney didn’t argue further, but that might have been because of his injuries as well. The sands of the proverbial hourglass was slowly draining away and Mikayla knew that she needed to act quickly. But what the hell was she supposed to do? Even as her eyes scanned the room again she saw nothing that would help them. There was nothing they could use, and with no strength left in either of their bodies she knew that reaching the window on the wall was impossible. She’d never admit it aloud but Church had cornered them well. He’d found the dirt he needed on her, lead her right into a trap and successfully used her as bait to bring Barney into his clutches. He’d used her as a pawn.
> 
> And right now it looked like he was going to get exactly what he wanted.
> 
> If she were close to a wall, she’d probably punch it right now. And break her hand as a result. The brunette growled in frustration as her mind hit brick wall after brick wall of ideas. Even if she had somehow been left with a pen she would have been in better shape than this. But there was nothing; she had nothing.
> 
> “Look, Barney we-“
> 
> But the girl stopped short when she looked down at the old man and saw that his eyes were closed. Dread filtered through her body in that moment. The hand that wasn’t holding the makeshift bandage to his chest was instantly on his shoulder, shaking him with as much force as she could muster in her beaten state. He didn’t make a sound.
> 
> “Barney? BARNEY!”
> 
> Her hand moved from his shoulder to his throat as her fingers attempted to locate his pulse. It was there – barely. A voice in the back of her mind told her that she couldn’t afford to panic in this situation but that was exactly what her body wanted her to do. One of her hands was still holding the compress to his chest, but the rest of her began to tremble as her heart started to race. What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t just let him die like this, not after he had come so far to try and save her. Even if it had been foolish of him to think that Church would let her go with his surrender, he had still come. Was this how it was all to end? With him dying of the wounds that had been inflicted upon him while she stood by helpless to save him? She couldn’t believe that it was all going to end like this.
> 
> “Mickey!”
> 
> Her head shot up instantly at the sound, wide eyes staring at the door. No, she thought. She hadn’t heard anything. It had been a figment of her imagination, a moment of desperation where she had heard something-
> 
> “Mickey!”
> 
> There was it was again. “Gunnar! Gunnar we’re in here!”
> 
> She’d know that voice anywhere. He called out to some of the others and the banging against the door began, giving the girl a bit of a fright as she tried to pull Barney’s unconscious form a little further away from the metal frame. But it was no use, the old man was far too big for her to move on her own accord in her weaker state. She doubted that she’d have been able to move him even if she had been in the best of health. And she didn’t dare to remove her hand from his chest in case the blood started to flow again.
> 
> “Mick, you have to get away from the door,” Lee called to her.
> 
> But the girl was quick to respond. “I can’t! It’s Barney!”
> 
> Curse words could be heard on the other side as the team gathered outside, unsure of how the hell they were supposed to break them out. Obviously Church had done something to the exterior of the door in order to prevent any such rescue missions, and that meant that their task had become a hundred times harder. Voices debated what to do in tones that were muffled against the door, but Mikayla’s only thoughts were of the man who lay beside her. He was dying, and if they didn’t act fast then they were going to lose him.
> 
> “I’m losing him, Lee!”
> 
> None of them missed the panic in her words. They hollered at one another and finally seemed to have an idea of what they needed to do. It was shouted for her to cover her head and stay as low as she could, but the young woman simply leaned forward to shield Barney from whatever plan they had concocted. A few seconds later there was a blast at the far end of the room as part of the wall was blown away, leaving a hole big enough for the team to get through. Lee was the first one to step over the pile of rubble and hurry toward them, throwing his weapon over his shoulder as he came and knelt down beside her.
> 
> “Are you okay?” he asked quickly. “Did they hurt you?”
> 
> “Don’t worry about me. If we don’t move we’re going to lose him.”
> 
> Through grit teeth Lee took only a second to look down at his friend before turning back and calling for Doc, who was swiftly followed into the room by Gunnar. Both men fell to their knees around Barney’s still form as they went back and forth with what they needed to do, where the worst of his injuries were. Doc’s hands gently moved Mikayla’s out of the way so that he could inspect the wound on his chest. A cursory examination was all that was required however. When he noted how severe it was and how shallow Barney’s breathing had become, Doc grabbed a wad of fresh gauze from his pocket and packed the wound tightly, calling for Caesar to come in and help him.
> 
> It took Doc, Gunnar, Lee and Caesar working together to carefully get Barney up off of the ground and into a stable hold that would allow them to carry his unconscious form out of the building. Mickey watched for a couple of minutes before her mind caught up to what was happening around her and she realized that she needed to get back to her feet.
> 
> “Need a hand?”
> 
> Her head turned sharply to look upward at the outstretched hand that was being offered to her, noting that it was connected to one of the younger faces she wasn’t overly familiar with. The boy could easily have been her own age, she thought to herself, with a leaner frame than most of the others, but a height that might actually rival Gunnar’s. There was a bit of a curl in his lips when he looked down at her but it was free of any cocky glimmer that she was accustomed to seeing in the men who thought they were coming to her aid.
> 
> Before she could change her mind, Mickey reached up and pressed her palm into his, gritting her teeth for the long journey upward. It was a painfully slow process, but the young man didn’t seem to be in too much of a rush to get her standing again. Once there she exhaled slowly, attempting to rid herself of the dizzy feeling that her head had suddenly adopted.
> 
> “Thanks.”
> 
> He nodded to her. “Are you able to walk alright?”
> 
> Mickey shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out.”
> 
> She released his hand and turned toward the hole that had been made in the wall for their escape, thinking of the steps she would take in that direction. It shouldn’t be a difficult task she thought to herself. And though the first step went well, the second saw her knees give out and her body begin to fall toward the ground. It was only a pair of strong arms around her waist that kept her from falling completely, and Mickey looked upward once again to see the amusement dancing in the depths of the young man’s eyes as he regarded her with a smile.
> 
> “I’m going to take that as a no.”
> 
> “Thorn! Where the hell are you?!”
> 
> The both of them frowned at the frantic voice they could hear on the other end as Thorn reached up to touch his ear piece. “I’m inside the building, where else am I supposed to be?”
> 
> “You need to get out of there right now!”
> 
> “Luna, what the hell-“
> 
> “The building’s rigged!”
> 
> “WHAT?!”
> 
> Mickey’s eyes grew wide as she and Thorn looked at each other, neither of them seeming to breathe in that instant. Church had planned this all along. He knew that the team would follow Barney in order to save her and so he had planned for such an event. He wanted them destroyed, completely and utterly removed from the face of the Earth. Maybe it was Barney that he had targeted in his video, but it was the entire time that he was really after.
> 
> And thanks to her, they’d walked right into his trap.
> 
> “Go,” she urged him, looking toward the door. “You’ve got a chance to get out of here, now go!”
> 
> “Yeah right,” he scoffed, scooping her up into his arms without warning. “The old man will kill me himself if I leave you behind.”
> 
> He was off like a shot, taking them both through the opening in the wall and into the vacant corridor before Mickey had the time to protest. Her arms instinctively looped around his neck to hold herself in place as he moved swiftly down the opening, all the while being yelled at by various members of the team in his earpiece that he needed to find the exit immediately. And if Mickey could hear them, she could only imagine how loudly they were screaming in Thorn’s ear.
> 
> With both of their hearts racing he continued down the corridor, taking the odd turn here and there as he tried to find his way back out of the maze that had been created to throw them off guard. Mickey could only pray that he knew where he was going. One wrong move and they would be so turned around that there was no way either of them would make it out of the building alive. Panic began to fill the young woman’s heart. All she had been conscious for was her removal from one room to another, she wouldn’t be able to help him navigate the halls.
> 
> What if they didn’t make it?
> 
> “Thorn!”
> 
> Just ahead of them was another figure, one that Mikayla remembered from their brief exchange in the hangar. He waved at the two of them to hurry in his direction, thrusting his arms forward as Thorn approached.
> 
> “Give her here.”
> 
> Her body was transferred from one set of arms to another before she had time to register the movement, her arms again reaching up to wrap around his neck in a tight hold. The closer she kept herself and the tighter she held her own body, the easier it would be for him to run with her, she remembered. But the exchange was so fast that she barely felt a moment of pause before they were off again, with the second man, Smilee, she remembered them calling him, now leading the way out of the maze. The urgency in their steps was not missed by the young woman as they went, her eyes locked on the tunnel ahead of them until they reached a light so bright that she was forced to turn her head away and close her eyes firmly. The searing heat of the sun pressed roughly against her skin, a feeling that only grew worse when she felt the hot flash of the blast from behind them.
> 
> They’d made it out.
> 
> Smilee seemed to move a little faster with the blast at his back, and Mickey turned her head just enough to see that what was left of the building was now engulfed in flames. Even against the sun she could feel the heat that radiated from the flames. She forced her eyes to open a little against the blinding lights so that she could see the destruction that lay behind them, a frightening scene that had nearly cost her not only her own life but Barney’s as well.
> 
> Neither Thorn nor Smilee stopped running until they were safely up the ramp of the plane and inside the cabin. It began to close as they reached the top, the engines roaring into life once more as Smilee set her down carefully on the floor. As the plane lurched forward Mickey lost her balance a little, and his arms quickly tightened around her waist as he pulled her to him for more stability. They were like that for only a moment before she began to pull away, allowing him to gently guide her to the bench that was attached to the inner wall. But she shook her head, pressing against him again as she looked up with fear in her eyes.
> 
> “Where is he?”
> 
> Smilee didn’t give her a verbal response, but a soft sigh as he turned his eyes toward the front of the plane. Her gaze followed his, and Mikayla knew that he was somewhere beneath the crowd of people who hovered about him in concern. On instinct her legs began to move despite how badly they shook, leading her closer and closer to the group. She was barely aware of the hold that Smilee still had on her, or the lingering hands of Thorn as he too attempted to keep her steady as she moved. But the sea of people seemed to part as she approached, each of them turning to look at her with the same sad eyes before they retreated to various places on the bench and left only the older members of the team standing guard.
> 
> Doc was on his knees beside Barney, his hands finishing with the bandage that he had wrapped as tightly around his chest as he could manage. The eyes of the others were upon her now, she could feel it. Yet she never once looked at any of them for fear of what else she might see. Using Smilee to balance she slowly sunk down to her knees beside Barney’s unconscious body and continued to stare at his face, her eyes wide as they consumed his still image.
> 
> She inhaled slowly. “Is he going to be alright?”
> 
> Doc hesitated, looking up at Lee and Gunnar for a moment before he formulated his reply. “I hope so.”
> 
> Mikayla nodded in quiet understanding. She knew how severe the wound was, and with more of his years behind him as opposed to ahead of him these were the injuries that would cost him the most. He was no longer a young man of twenty who could break a bone in his leg and then be walking again in four weeks. But with the blood that he had lost…
> 
> She didn’t speak again. Instead she positioned herself on the floor in a way that wasn’t completely uncomfortable and quietly picked up the old man’s damaged hand in her own, gingerly turning it over to assess how badly it had been hurt. And for the remainder of the journey home, she didn’t let it go. Her eyes never once left him, even as Gunnar grabbed the rough blanket from the back of the plane and draped it around her naked shoulders to shield her body from any wandering eyes. She didn’t notice that the Swedish giant had placed himself on the bench just behind her in a protective manner, nor that Lee’s gaze was solely focused on the way that she seemed to guard Barney from anything else that might seek them out.
> 
> This wasn’t over, she thought to herself. If Church thought he was going to get away with this, he had another thing coming.


	11. Waiting Game

> As soon as Drummer had the plane on the ground Mikayla was struggling to get to her feet despite the obvious pain that she was in. Precious few words had been spoken on the entire journey back to the hangar as the team each seemed to watch the constant vigil that the young woman kept over Barney's unconscious form. The only person who dared to touch her was Gunnar, reaching out with his large hands to steady her when she started to sway a little in an effort to keep herself upright. And when she went to take a few steps it was Gunnar who quickly caught her again.
> 
> Together they stood in silence as the team assembled and quietly debated who was required to help move Barney off of the plane safely, settling on Lee, Caesar, Doc and Toll Road as the younger group, Trench and Yang all backed away to give them the space they would need. It was a somber affair within the hangar as they carefully left the plane and hurried as best as they could to load Barney into the van that stood waiting at the bottom of the ramp. A grim looking Tool waited for them by the open door as they brought Barney's mangled form past. His eyes followed them from the moment they left the plane until they had started to load Barney into the van, at which point they lifted upward and instead looked for someone else.
> 
> Even in her beaten state, Mickey was well enough to step away from Gunnar's firm hands and walk into Tool's waiting arms. For a moment he just held her close as his eyes once again turned to watch the others do their part, ensuring that their leader was safely secured inside before they climbed out and immediately headed back toward the plane. Only Doc stayed in the back, leaving just enough room for Mikayla to climb in beside him before the doors were closed and both Tool and Gunnar made their way to the front of the vehicle to begin the journey to the hospital.
> 
> Still holding the rough woolen blanket over her shoulders, Mikayla's dark eyes stared down at Barney's unconscious form. If there was even the slightest change in movement, she would see it. She would know right away if they were going to lose him.
> 
> Her body jolted a little when she felt Doc's arm wrap around her, hugging her gently to his side. "He'll be okay," he murmured to her. "Barney's been through tougher scraps than this."
> 
> But the young woman didn't reply, afraid of letting him hear the doubt that was running through her mind. Mikayla hadn't seen the horrors that Barney had endured over the years as Doc had. She didn't know what kind of dangers he had survived. She had seen other terrible things over the years, but nothing that hit home quite like this. Church had planned his attack perfectly, making it personal for both of them as he lured them into a trap and then toyed with them the way a cat toys with a mouse before he goes in for the kill.
> 
> The journey to the hospital was just as silent has the plane ride had been. As soon as they arrived, Tool cut the engine and hurried through the doors to alert the nurses to the emergency that was sitting in the back of the van. Several of them materialized in minutes, two of them removing Mikayla from the back while several others directed Tool, Gunnar and Doc to help them load Barney onto a stretcher and get him inside. She tried to watch them work even as she found herself shepherded into another room and the door quickly closed to block off her line of sight. They then began to fuss over her. Her wounds were checked, the cuts and bruises evaluated as they gently coaxed the blanket away from her body and attempted to get her to relax on the edge of the hospital bed.
> 
> Hisses of pain escaped her lips as the alcohol soaked cotton was pressed against her skin. The dried blood slowly began to fall away as their busy hands attended her body and the various marks that had been made, their voices babbling in medical terms that mostly went over her head. For what seemed like an eternity she was subjected to their treatment, including x-rays to check for broken bones and a drip to replenish her body of the fluids that she so desperately needed.
> 
> Finally, when they were satisfied that their job was done, they left her to sit on the edge of her bed. Her clothes had been removed and discarded due to the amount of dust, blood and sweat that had been on them, and so she wore only a hospital gown to cover her body from prying eyes. She wasn't allowed to leave, they had been rather firm on that, but they had also been unable to provide any word of how Barney was doing or where they had even taken him. The anxiety was beginning to mount as she sat there, her fingers wrapped tightly around the edge of the bed as they sunk deeper and deeper into the mattress on which she sat.
> 
> Was he going to be alright? He had still been breathing when she had been hurried away by the nurses, but nobody had yet come to tell her if there was any change. Where were the others?
> 
> A soft knock on the door brought her head snapping up in an instant. There was only a momentary pause before the handle began to turn and the door was pushed aside, revealing the figure of the only other woman Mikayla had encountered over the past several days. Luna stepped into the room and closed the door again, turning to face her counterpart with one of the most neutral expressions Mickey had ever seen.
> 
> "Here," Luna said, offering out the bag that she had brought with her. "I figured you might be more comfortable in these than that hospital gown."
> 
> Mickey blinked at her. Only after giving herself a bit of a shake did she reach out to take the bag that was offered to her and slowly pull it back until she was able to hug it against her chest. She continued to stare at Luna for a minute even as the other woman turned her back to give her a little privacy in order to get changed. But then she started to move, pulling the bag open as she moved through the articles of clothing and slowly began to put them onto her body in place of the hospital gown.
> 
> "I'm not sure how things will fit, so I stole one of Smilee's belts just in case."
> 
> Her dark orbs looked down into the bag. Yep, there was most definitely a belt in there. Even in her state of mind she could feel the corners of her lips curve upward slightly at the idea of a belt being snagged by a team member. That kind of comradery wasn't something you could fake.
> 
> "Are these your clothes?" Mickey asked quietly as she slipped one leg into the pair of jeans.
> 
> Luna gave her a bit of a shrug without turning her head. "Figured I was the best candidate to help you out for clothes. After the hell you just went through, real clothes can be a good thing."
> 
> Mickey wasn't entirely sure what to say. "Thanks…"
> 
> Another few minutes of silence passed between them as she slowly slid her way into the clothes that Luna provided, finding that even though she had thought herself to be a few inches taller than the blonde, the clothing fit rather well. The legs of the jeans had to be rolled up a little in order to avoid the appearance of wearing floods but they definitely did the job. There was even enough space around the waistband for her to know that the belt wasn't really necessary…but she strung it through the loops anyway so that Luna's thievery wouldn't be for nothing.
> 
> "Okay, I'm good."
> 
> Pivoting on her heel to face her again, Luna folded her arms over her chest and looked her up and down for a moment with a smirk of her own. "Not bad," she commented. "The colours look pretty good too."
> 
> Truth be told, neither one of them had really considered the colours until that moment. Mickey hadn't seen her reflection in so long that she was willing to accept Luna's words as a compliment just so she didn't have to face the bruises on her face and the dark circles under her eyes. She didn't need to be told that she looked like living hell. She could already feel it. But she had to admit that after being held captive in the same clothes for a number of days, having clean material against her skin was a welcome change no matter what it looked like.
> 
> Still, she wasn't about to be distracted by jeans, a tank top and a sweater.
> 
> The worried look was back within a few seconds. "Is he alright?"
> 
> Luna sighed softly and rubbed at her forehead. "Truthfully? I don't know. I haven't had a chance to check since you guys left."
> 
> Her hands flew up to her face as the growl of frustration sounded. The nurses had practically forbade her to leave this room until a doctor could officially look her over and she wasn't sure that she could yet trust Luna to just let her walk out of there without following orders. But why on earth would the girl care what she did or didn't do? It wasn't like they really knew one another. Were it not for Barney then the two of them would likely never have crossed paths anyway.
> 
> "You coming?"
> 
> Mickey's head shot up out of her hands as she stared at the open door that Luna now nodded to, having pulled it aside and already gestured that they should just leave before they were caught. Well at that point she didn't need to be told twice. Mickey staggered her way to the door and reached out to grip the framework for a minute in order to find her balance. She had no idea of how far they would need to go into the hospital to find him, but she was determined that she was going to make it there. She just hoped that she didn't encounter too many nurses along the way who might insist that she return to the other room to be looked at.
> 
> "It's about time you girls showed up."
> 
> A frown etched itself onto her face as she peeked around the corner of the door and into the hallway. Leaning up against the wall with his arms folded tightly over his chest was another of the team's younger recruits, the one who had first confronted her when she had arrived at the hangar and later helped to carry her out of the building before it exploded behind them. What was his name again? Hell, she couldn't remember even if she cared enough to try right now. But he wasn't exactly alone either. There were two other boys standing there with him in various positions. The first she recognized as having been the one to reach her first in the building. The second one she hadn't officially met yet.
> 
> "What can I say? A girl needs time to do her hair," came Mickey's sarcastic response.
> 
> The man rolled his eyes, pulling away from the wall. "He's in the OR right now. Apparently Church did more damage than Doc thought."
> 
> Though her face didn't show it, her heart sunk at his words. "Where are the others?"
> 
> "They're in the waiting room."
> 
> "Well then, let's go."
> 
> She didn't wait for anyone to speak. She just started moving down the one side of the hallway without even knowing if she was headed in the right direction. The footsteps were painfully slow for her as she tried to maintain her balance by gripping at the wall, fighting off the dizziness that was slowly creeping into her body. But she had to move, the inner voices demanded. If she stopped moving there was always a chance that she wouldn't make it in time. And that wasn't acceptable, not now.
> 
> A touch to her arm made her jump rather violently, almost collapsing against the wall as she tried to spin around and weakly defend herself against the person who grabbed her. But he had caught her flying hand with ease and now used some of his own strength to help keep her upright, looking at her with a slightly softer expression than before. And for a moment, Mickey was caught off guard by the look that he gave her.
> 
> "First of all, you're going the wrong way," he told her a little gruffly as he slowly released her wrist and allowed her hand to fall to her side. "But it's going to take us all day to get there if that's how you're moving."
> 
> Before she could protest he had slipped an arm around her back and bent forward to hook the other beneath her knees, lifting her smaller frame with such ease that he almost made her feel completely weightless. Her arms were around his neck in an instant to instinctively protect her body from the threat of being dropped. It was so weird to feel like that she thought. Even though this man had been one of the ones to help carry her out of the building during the rescue mission, she hadn't exactly given him a second thought since their first hostile encounter.
> 
> As she caught herself staring up at him, Mickey quickly gave herself a mental kick and narrowed her eyes at him. "Just watch the hands, okay?"
> 
> In response, the young man just rolled his eyes before he adjusted his hold to something a little more secure. Then he turned on his heel and began to march down the hall toward the others, who ultimately parted to either side of the corridor to let him past and lead the procession back to the waiting room area. It was a silent affair that had them all flanking her protector as close as they dared without the risk of stepping on his heels. Mickey continued to hold on for dear life lest he decide to drop her, even though in the back of her mind she knew that she was probably as safe with them as she had been with Barney. They'd probably protect her, if only for his sake.
> 
> The five minutes that it took them to reach the waiting room seemed like an eternity to Mickey as she continued to hold tightly to the stranger's neck. And the more she held onto him, the more she thought about how right he had been. If his normal pace was taking longer than she would have liked then she could only imagine how long it would have taken here to get there on her own. Never mind the fact that she had been going the wrong way entirely when she started. But she was slightly glad not to have made the journey on her own, for even as she sat in his arms she could feel the weariness creep into her body. When was the last time she had slept? She didn't know. She'd spent much of the previous night watching over Barney after he had been brought into the cell with her. Perhaps she had dozed off then. She couldn't really remember.
> 
> Gunnar was the first to notice them coming through the doors, and he bolted to his feet almost instantly. "You're supposed to be waiting for a doctor," he grumbled down at her. "Smilee-"
> 
> "She's still kinda beat up," the man holding her protested a little, his eyes narrowing slightly at Gunnar. "Her balance is a little off."
> 
> At this however, Mikayla turned her dark orbs up to look at him. "Maybe my legs don't work, but my tongue is functioning just fine."
> 
> It didn't take a genius to see that he wasn't overly pleased with the sharpness of her tone, but that didn't stop him from gently setting her on the ground again when she shifted her weight in his arms. Gunnar's hands were out in an instant to help her find her balance if needed, and Mickey gratefully reached out with her one hand to grasp his forearm firmly.
> 
> "Has there been any word?" she asked him anxiously.
> 
> Gunnar slowly shook his head in response, dropping his gaze a little so that he no longer had to look Mickey right in the eye. But that was the only answer she needed. The doctor's hadn't been out yet to speak to them, and so that meant that Barney was still in the operating room fighting for his life. And in her experience, his lack of eye contact meant one of two things. Either Gunnar wasn't holding out a lot of hope that Barney would be able to pull through, or he partially blamed Mikayla for what had happened and didn't want to say it aloud.
> 
> And she could hardly blame him. At this point in time, she blamed herself as well.
> 
> She'd walked right into the trap that Church had set for her, somehow putting a foot out of line that allowed him to look her up and discover who she was so that she could be used as a pawn against Barney. After years of not speaking to one another and attempting to push aside the harsh feelings that she had felt toward him for his constant absence she was finally being forced to confront her own personal feelings. She didn't exactly appreciate him for it either. She'd done quite well with her life up until this point. And now Church had gone and blown it all to shit.
> 
> A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she released her hold on Gunnar's arm and looked toward the others, noticing their various expressions and stances seemed to be much like that of the Swedish giant before her. Nobody seemed to want to make eye contact…and none of them looked overly hopeful.
> 
> "I see."
> 
> And so their waiting game was to continue. Squaring her shoulders as best as she could the young woman stepped toward the first vacant seat that she caught sight of, hoping perhaps that her body would allow her to at least reach that point on her own and retain what little dignity she seemed to have left. The first step proved to be rather shaky, and she could already feel the others looming behind her for the first sign of struggle. So when her knees started to buckle it didn't surprise her to find that one person had caught her around the waist while another had grabbed hold of her elbow. A quick glance to the side told her that it was Gunnar who had her elbow, and so she believed it was Smilee, as she now knew him to be called, that had secured his arm around her waist.
> 
> Out of instinct, her free arm had wrapped around her abdomen to lay on top of Smilee's in order to reassure herself that she wasn't going to go anywhere. "It's alright boys, I'm fine."
> 
> Not that either of them was likely convinced, she thought to herself. So far she was definitely not showing anyone that she was capable of walking without some form of assistance, and she knew already by the look that Lee wore when he glanced in her direction that he didn't approve of her attempted mobility. In response, she sent him a small smile to try and reassure him.
> 
> She didn't expect him to get up out of his seat and make his way toward her as the other two were setting her on her feet once more, looking down with the same firm look that he usually seemed to adopt in these serious situations. His eyes never once left her as he moved to secure an arm around her back and stepped into Gunnar's place, thus removing both Smilee and Gunnar from the situation entirely as he began to guide her over to the empty chair between himself and Tool.
> 
> "He'd be livid with you right now," Lee growled quietly.
> 
> "Maybe," she acknowledged. "But right now I'm not the one who really needs to be worried about."
> 
> Lee didn't have a response for her then. Instead he slowly adjusted the way that he held onto her body so that he could lower her into the chair and relied on Tool's silent nod so make sure that she wasn't going to lose her balance and fall over entirely. Only when the signal was given did he release her and seat himself beside her again, leaning forward with his elbows pressed into his thighs and his hands clasped before him. There was no telling how long they would be sitting there. A few minutes…a few hours…all they could do now was try to make themselves comfortable until the doctor finally arrived with whatever news he was burdened to carry.
> 
> With slight difficulty, Mickey tucked her legs beneath herself and leaned into Tool's shoulder, reaching out to gently hold one of his larger hands in her two small ones just as she had done with Barney that night in their cell. No words were spoken…there were really none to say. But Tool understood and slowly reached to cover her hands with as much reassurance as he could muster in this dark situation.
> 
> They just knew that they were in for a long wait.


	12. Ties That Bind

> For six agonizing hours they sat in the waiting room of the hospital for word on Barney's condition.
> 
> There were several other people who came and went within that time frame, several other patients who were seen by doctors before they were discharged. Nurses moved back and forth across the floor as they shuffled through their paperwork and carried it from place to place so that they could properly treat those who were in the immediate area and needing care. It was like watching the world move forward in slow motion as they continued to wait in silence. Every so often one of them would move so that they could stretch their bodies a little and get the blood flowing back into their legs, but otherwise they remained where they were. Nobody left to get food, and absolutely nobody dared to close their eyes.
> 
> She was fighting the urge to close her eyes though as the abuse she had taken began to really catch up with her. There was no more adrenaline coursing through her veins, and aside from the small movements she had made in order to remove the pins and needles feeling from her legs Mikayla remained with the team in the same chair that Lee had initially helped her into. The only other person who hadn't gotten up from his chair to ease the aches from his body was Tool, for the older man was absolutely glued to Mickey's side. He moved only when she did and twisted his body uncomfortably in the waiting room chairs just so that she could lay her head against his arm.
> 
> It was the only comfort she sought during that time, a simple touch to reassure herself that there was someone else in the room with her in case her nerves were to fail. And who better was there than Tool, the one man she had probably seen more constantly in her life than any other? Mickey could remember the first time she had heard her nickname spoken aloud. She had been only three years old, and so most doubted that her memory actually served her correctly, but she swore by it. It had been Tool who had laughed and said that she needed a nickname to make her cool.
> 
> And so he had dubbed her Mickey.
> 
> "Are you the friends and family of Barney Ross?"
> 
> All of a sudden the world shifted back into focus as her head snapped up to look at the doctor who had silently entered the room, prompting Mickey to pull away from Tool move as if to rise to her feet. It was only when Tool and Lee both reached out to her with gentle hands that she lowered herself back down to her seat again. But her eyes remained locked on the doctor in her scrubs.
> 
> "Is he going to be alright?" she asked quickly.
> 
> The doctor paused just long enough for Mickey's heart to freeze. "He suffered considerable damage to his chest, and as a result lost a lot of blood. We lost him a few times on the table but we were successful in reviving him. Unfortunately, as a result of the trauma he suffered, I cannot guarantee that he will wake up."
> 
> The room seemed to come to a stand-still. Nobody moved…she didn't think anyone dared to breathe. They had likely all expected that Barney would be in rough shape after his encounter with Church, but this was the very last thing that any of them would have wished. With all that Barney had endured in the past it seemed likely that the old man could pull through almost anything. Yet here was a doctor who was now putting pressure on that hope. She had probably done all she could in the operating room. She'd already said that they had lost him a few times while he was on the table. But as an outsider she could hardly grasp this blow the way his team would.
> 
> But it wasn't her fault, Mickey reminded herself. It was just as it had been with her mother, where the doctor's needed to maintain a professional distance from their patients so that they didn't become too attached to them when the inevitable occurred. It didn't make the experience any less painful for the family however, though at least this time around she knew that none of them would have to face this alone as she had had to do. They'd have each other. Lee would keep them together.
> 
> "Can we see him?"
> 
> "In his condition, we're only allowing the family to go back and see him right now."
> 
> Mikayla looked around her at all of the faces who remained in that waiting room. Not a single one had left. Turning back to the doctor, she glanced upward with a steely gaze. "Then you're in luck. Because this  _is_  his family."
> 
> For a moment it seemed that the doctor considered arguing over the number of people who began to gather toward her at that moment, but she apparently thought better of it as she watched Mikayla struggle to her feet. A frown appeared on her face as she surveyed the look of the young woman in front of her. Obviously the doctor didn't approve of her being on her feet in that condition. Though she wisely kept her comments to herself and just turned to lead the way. A nod to Lee had him following right behind, with the others following suit until only Tool, Gunnar and Mikayla were left to bring up the rear.
> 
> She had pushed herself to her feet, but thus far that was all Mikayla had been able to do. Taking the lead as they were directed through the various corridors of the hospital would have slowed everyone else down and she knew that they were just as anxious as she was to go and see him. She would make it there, a little slower than everyone else perhaps but she would eventually get there. And he wouldn't dare leave until everyone had at least been in to see him.
> 
> "Go on," she said gently to Gunnar, trying to offer him just a little bit of a smile. "Tool will stay with me. I'll see you soon."
> 
> The giant was not entirely convinced that leaving her was a good idea, she could see that written plainly in his face as he glanced up at Tool. Only when the other man nodded did he slow depart to follow the rest of the team, giving Mikayla just a minute to try and steady her nerves before she focused her dark eyes on the door ahead. Her one hand momentarily fumbled at her side in search of something to hold onto, and Tool was quick to respond. His left hand grabbed onto hers as his right arm slid around her back and pulled her a little closer to his body for support. And it was with his help that she began to step forward at a much slower pace than she might have liked. One step at a time, carefully attempting to maintain her balance and leaning into him when needed, the two made their way toward the set of doors that would lead them from the waiting room and down the corridors to where the rest of the team waited.
> 
> There were many sets of eyes that fell on them as they moved. Patients, doctors, nurses…many people were curious to know where she was going and why it was that she moved as slowly as she did. The disapproving looks were the ones that she felt the most, a majority of them coming from doctors and nurses she knew all too well that Mikayla was supposed to be waiting in a room of her own for further assessment. But none of their looks or opinions mattered to the young woman as she struggled on. All that mattered was her destination.
> 
> Everyone had somehow managed to cram themselves into the single room that Barney occupied, but they made room at the door as soon as Doc saw Mickey and Tool approaching from the hallway. It was like the parting of the Red Sea all over again when they realized that she was there. All of the bodies moved at once, leaving a clear path between the doorway and the edge of the bed. But when her eyes came to rest on the end of the bed and the sheet covered legs that she knew belonged to Barney, her courage began to fail and colour started to drain away from her face. She didn't want to see this, didn't want to consider the fact that Church would have succeeded in killing him…that Barney had laid down his life in order to protect her one last time.
> 
> "Mick," Lee was at her other side in an instant, his hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to do this."
> 
> But the brunette just shook her head. "How can I walk away now?" she whispered to him, her eyes never leaving the motionless figure on the bed that she could only partially see through the throng.
> 
> "He wouldn't want you to see him like this."
> 
> "He doesn't have a choice," she responded. "I'm not leaving."
> 
> Her fingers fell away from Tool's hand. As she steeled her nerves for the sight that she would shortly gaze upon at the other side of the bed she pulled away from both men, her teeth grit against the pain she endured with each unstable step. She didn't know where the strength came from to take those steps, but she took them anyway. A half dozen steps forward took her right to the side of the bed, where her eyes finally took in the extent of the damage that had been done to him in his brief capture.
> 
> What she saw, however, was not unlike what she had seen with her mother in those final weeks before the cancer finally took its toll and eased her body into an eternal rest. There were tubes and wires all over him to monitor his breathing, blood pressure and heart beat, an aged look upon his face that seemed to add a few decades onto his actual age. The only difference here was that Blanca had not been in a coma, but rather had slept between her brief periods of consciousness so that she could attempt to settle her affairs before her time finally came. It had been a long and painful process for Mikayla to endure on her own. There had been no one else to care.
> 
> But now after losing her mother only a short while before, it looked as though she might lose him too.
> 
> She didn't realize that her hands were shaking so badly until she reached out to wrap her fingers around Barney's damaged palm. His hand had been broken several times, she noticed, based on the swollen nature of his fingers and the slightly awkward angles that they had taken. Obviously the old man hadn't had anything set properly afterward. Probably too stubborn to spend much time in a hospital, she guessed. But all of the machines that beeped around him seemed to show that he was stable. Unconscious perhaps, but stable nonetheless. For now that would have to suffice.
> 
> "Mickey-"
> 
> "No," she said firmly. "I'm not going anywhere."
> 
> Her eyes never once left Barney, not even to turn around and see which member of the team it was who addressed her. The grip in her hand tightened slightly, but otherwise there seemed to be no other motion that came from her body. Behind her she could hear the soft shuffling of people as they crowded around and whispered in hushed tones, seeming to debate what they were supposed to do. But then, one by one she heard them retreat out the door. The aura in the room seemed to change completely. Without the presence of the others she could feel her own strength slowly begin to slip away, leaving her drained and emotionally overwhelmed.
> 
> Leaning into the edge of the bed a little to keep her balance, Mickey could feel her knees begin to tremble from the pressure of standing unassisted for so long. Her shoulders slumped forward, head hanging a little lower than before. All of the signs of fatigue were beginning to show in her posture. Soon she would be running on a less than empty tank, and who knew what sort of damage would be done then.
> 
> Very slowly, Lee walked up behind her and placed his hands on either shoulder. "Come on Mick," he started gently. "You need to get some rest. In an hour they'll just come and kick you out anyway."
> 
> "So let them," she dared. "They can make me leave this room but they can't make me leave the hospital."
> 
> Blinking down at her with obvious confusion, Lee shifted himself to stand on her one side. "What sort of crazy scheme did you come up with now, girl?"
> 
> Very slowly, she turned her dark orbs up to look at Barney's best friend. "It doesn't matter. The rest of you need to go home and recharge. I'll be fine here."
> 
> At this, Lee couldn't help but frown a little as he resisted the inner urge to roll his eyes. "You can barely stand on your own and you expect me to just leave you?" he asked in disbelief. "You're as crazy as he is."
> 
> Mickey didn't reply. Instead she slowly shifted her body and sunk down into the chair that sat directly beside the bed, her face twisted in a look of discomfort all the way down until finally she had settled her body against the cushioned seat. Her one hand remained wrapped around Barney's fingers as she did so, never once breaking contact with the old man. But Lee just shook his head and sighed. She really was just as stubborn as her old man was, he thought to himself. If Barney had still been conscious and able to make the decisions for himself, he probably would have refused the medical treatment that he had gotten up to this point. And he certainly wouldn't have allowed them to keep him in the hospital overnight.
> 
> A frustrated sigh sounded from Lee as he ran his hands over his head. His attempts at understanding the situation were proving to be futile at the moment, for he knew that even the most logical argument would fall in deaf ears. Mickey really was like her old man, whether she cared to admit it or not. Exhaling slowly to focus on the task at hand, Lee slowly knelt down side Mikayla and placed a hand on her knee.
> 
> "They  _will_  come back and tell you that you have to leave," he reminded her quietly. "What are you going to do then?"
> 
> "Don't worry about it, Lee," Mickey told the old man gently, taking her free hand and placing it on top of his. "Everything's going to be fine."
> 
> But Lee just shook his head. "The guys aren't going to leave you alone."
> 
> "I know….trust me. If Tool or Gunnar keep hovering I'm going to start asking them if they've been fitted for their hen costumes."
> 
> When Lee chuckled lightly at her joke the tension in the room seemed to loosen a little. Even Mickey had to allow herself to smile. But still she could feel the heavy presence of doubt weighing on her mind. The empty feeling that had invaded her soul was something that she was unaccustomed to. So many moments of her life over the last several years had been spent in isolated missions as she worked her ass off to make the money that was needed to support her mother as her health began to decline. She'd never been honest with Blanca about what it was that she did in order to make the money, though she had always assured her that she wasn't doing anything illegal. Then again, she'd always claimed that she wasn't doing anything dangerous either…and that had been the biggest lie she had ever told up to that point.
> 
> Lee bit his lip a little and lifted his head to look at her. "Someone else will be here with you at all times. Just in case Church realizes that the two of you weren't in the building."
> 
> "That's not necess-"
> 
> "It's not an option, Mikayla," Lee told her firmly as his steely gaze came to settle on her face once more. "Everyone's worried about Barney, and those of us who know you better are worried about you."
> 
> There was a momentary pause. Neither really knew what else there was left to say in this conversation. But they were spared from having to pick it up, as someone else materialized at the door at just the right moment. One of the nurses made her way inside and began to check over the various machines that were connected to her patient, eyeing the two people by the bedside with a slight air of authority.
> 
> "I'm afraid visiting hours are now over," she announced to them as her fingers pressed a couple of buttons on the machine to her left. "You'll be able to come back and see him tomorrow."
> 
> The staring contest that began between Mickey and the nurse did not go unnoticed by Lee, who glanced back and forth for a moment before gently nudging the young woman from her seat. It was only with his firm guidance that the stubborn brunette allowed herself to be lead toward the door, her movements just as unsteady as they had previously been. But as they reached the corridor, she didn't turn back to go the way they had come. She instead turned off in the other direction, catching Lee entirely by surprise.
> 
> "Where are you going now?" he asked her.
> 
> Her response was simple. "There's one room in the entire building that they have very little authority over. I'll be in there until visiting hours resume tomorrow."
> 
> "Where the bloody hell is that?"
> 
> Mickey smirked at him. "The chapel."
> 
>  


	13. The Chapel

> Despite her upbringing, Mikayla had never been the religious type. She had gone to church and said her prayers to appease her mother when she was a little girl, but as she had grown older and become a little bitter toward the different aspects of her life she had left religion behind her. What was the point in kneeling for confession to ask for forgiveness when you were out there taking lives on an almost daily basis? The fewer people that knew about her chosen lifestyle the better. Even her mother hadn't been privy to all of the details when Mickey had channeled her anger and frustration into her physical training. She could barely remember how she had even come to get involved with that life, but the money had been too good to pass up when things had started to get really tight.
> 
> But the chapel was the perfect place for her to hide at this time, loath as she was to admit it. The hospital staff were unable to legally remove her from this room, but would always be able to locate her in the instant that something changed with Barney. And here she would be free of the constant stares and worried glances that the others seemed to wear when she was in their presence. Lee hadn't been thrilled when she had told him where she was going. The growl in his throat had been evidence of that. Yet he knew as well as she did that as soon as she entered that room he had absolutely no way of removing her without it being against her will and he wasn't prepared to deal with the hell that would erupt if he had tried.
> 
> Yet another trick she had learned from Barney, he had grumbled.
> 
> Mickey had taken a seat somewhere in the middle of the room, having collapsed into a pew with a groan of discomfort as soon as Lee had departed. He hadn't been pleased with the idea of leaving her alone for even the briefest moment of time, and she knew that it wouldn't be long before someone appeared to sit with her. Lee had been rather firm on the fact that she would not be sitting there by herself all night. Apparently Barney would have a fit that she was in there at all instead of worrying about her own health.
> 
> The young woman closed her eyes and tilted her head forward a little, letting her forehead rest against her clasped hands with a soft sigh. When was the last time that she had slept? She couldn't really remember. She couldn't even tell how many hours had passed since Barney had been thrown back into their cell and she had first tried to stop his wounds from bleeding. But the minutes had ticked on by regardless and now she was beginning to feel the weight of them upon her shoulders.
> 
> Even in her state of exhaustion however, the brunette's mind was still mulling over the possible ways that Church might have been able to find her and connect her to Barney. Was there some kind of paperwork trail that he had used? No, that didn't make any sense. She had seen her birth certificate and there was no father listed, presumably a way of keeping them safe when Barney went back to his chosen lifestyle and left them both behind. Mickey was still a little bitter about that. It was one of the things that had been burning in her mind when she had finally gotten fed up with him and demanded that he just leave. She had been only sixteen years old then. He had promised that he would be there to see her graduate from high school early…and he hadn't come. She remembered looking out into the crowd for her mother when she had crossed the stage to receive her diploma and spotted her somewhere off to the side. She'd been alone, even though she tried to show her pride through her bright smile.
> 
> But it had never truly been enough for her. She had wanted so badly for Barney to be there that she had placed all of her faith in his word. And when he had let her down, Mickey had turned her heart against anyone else for fear of being hurt like that again.
> 
> "Mind if I join you?"
> 
> Dark eyes shot upward in surprise. The older gentleman who approached her was someone she wasn't immediately familiar with, well dressed in a suit and with hair more grey than anything else. His tone of voice was fairly gruff even though he wore a bit of a smile in the corner of his lip, one hand resting on the back of the pew as the other gestured to the bench on which she sat. Mickey slipped back a little and looked around her in case someone else was nearby, but she saw no one.
> 
> "Don't worry," he said as he lifted his hand in a calming gesture. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm a friend of Barney's."
> 
> Mickey raised a brow. "You'll have to forgive me if I don't immediately trust that the old man had too many friends."
> 
> Chuckling gently in amusement, the older man shifted into the pew regardless and placed himself beside her, sitting sideways so that his attention rested not on the altar ahead of them but on her. His hands quietly folded in his lap as he leaned in toward her, immediately causing the young woman to pull back a little in distrust. But the more that she found herself looking at him the more Mickey couldn't help feeling that she had actually seen this man before. Her brow furrowed into a small frown as she considered all of the possible places he might have appeared. And then she relaxed a little, the memory surfacing.
> 
> "You were flying the plane," she murmured lightly.
> 
> The old man nodded slowly. "I'm Operations Officer Drummer."
> 
> Mikayla raised a brow in question. "You work for the CIA and yet you're lending a hand on these suicide missions? Either you're getting bored or you're just as crazy as the old man is."
> 
> Drummer seemed to take her sarcasm in his stride, chuckling lightly at her comment as he gave his head a bit of a shake. "Not too far off," he responded. "He's certainly made my life interesting over the last couple of months."
> 
> With a bit of a grimace, Mikayla settled back against the hard wooden pew and folded her arms lightly over her chest in a protective manner, eyeing Drummer carefully. "Look, since I'm pretty sure that you're not here for a social call, let's just cut to the chase. What do you want from me?"
> 
> The laughter seemed to fade away almost instantly as the professional agent look over. Drummer shifted only slightly so that he could better address her head on, the intensity of his gaze growing with each passing second. In ordinary circumstances she knew that she wouldn't have flinched in such a situation. Most of the men who approached her wore the same lecherous grin, each seeking one thing and one thing only when they decided that they were going to slide into the empty seat beside her. She'd grown accustomed to handling them. But the steady look that Drummer seemed to eye her with was something completely new for Mickey. Then again, sitting inside a chapel was something that was pretty new to her as well.
> 
> "I need to know everything you can tell me about Church," he started slowly, dropping his voice into a low growl once more. "What he was planning, what he wanted…everything."
> 
> But the brunette just shook her head, breathing a soft sigh. "You're about to be really disappointed with my answer," she warned him. "He didn't seem to have any other motive for what he was doing aside from wanting Barney to come after me. He didn't torture me, he didn't have me beaten when I didn't give him information. I was just the bait."
> 
> Her eyes took note of the twitch in his jaw as Drummer resisted the urge to say something…probably to curse, she thought. That's likely what she would want to be doing in his position. But since her knowledge of Church and his previous position within the agency was minimal at best she could only guess at the thoughts that were running rampant through the older man's head. He didn't look pleased, that much was certain. Though it seemed that he was reluctant to share his displeasure with her, for he spoke not a word that might request her to re-evaluate her statement and think again about what she might have seen. Did he actually believe her, or was he taking pity on the fact that he thought Church had put her through hell and back in a few different ways?
> 
> If it was the latter of the two, it didn't sit well with Mickey.
> 
> "What are you thinking?" she asked him.
> 
> Drummer didn't hesitate to lift his eyes and make direct contact with her. "I think that as soon as he realizes Barney wasn't in that building he's going to come back for him."
> 
> It was only because she remembered where she was that she didn't curse out loud, biting down on her lower lip instead as the anger began to bubble in the pit of her stomach once more. Loathe as she was to admit it Drummer was probably right. If Church was that hell bent on getting his revenge on Barney for whatever reason, he was bound to go back and double check the results of his scheme. And when he realized that there were no bodies to be found in the smoldering rubble he would retrace his steps and make a second attempt. It wouldn't be difficult for him to figure out where Barney was being treated either, as he seemed to know exactly how to get that video to him.
> 
> The very idea that Church might get his hands on Barney again was enough to make Mickey's blood boil.
> 
> Her teeth grit together in her anger, causing a painful twinge in her jaw that she ignored. "Can you find him again?"
> 
> Very slowly, Drummer shook his head. "I don't know if we can," he answered in a rather bitter tone. "The time that you went after him was a trap that he set you up for. I can only wonder at how many other times he intentionally let himself be seen so that we could gather what little intel we had."
> 
> Though he didn't say it outright, Drummer had admitted to the one thing that Mikayla was worried about. With the time that Church had spent working for the agency he had amassed enough skills and knowledge to know how to avoid almost all detection at all. He wouldn't be found until he wanted to be, and he was going to make damn sure to use those skills to turn everything around and get back at Barney. He'd know exactly what buttons to push, which avenues to go through in order to find out if the leader of the team had indeed been killed or not. And as soon as Church was privy to the fact that both she and Barney had survived his initial assault he would return with a vengeance. Mickey didn't doubt this in the least.
> 
> "What do you suggest?"
> 
> Again, Drummer gave his peppered head a bit of a shake. "If he were well enough to be moved to a safe house we could hide him away for a while until we had a better idea of Church's movements. As he is now, there's nothing we can do."
> 
> Mickey bit down in her lip, eyes widening a little as she attempted to come up with some sort of plan that would allow them to move Barney's battered form away from the hospital…but she knew that in his current condition he couldn't be moved anywhere. Not unless Drummer happened to know of a fully stocked medical facility that the CIA had hidden away underground.
> 
> "Then someone stays with him at all times," she murmured, lifting her dark eyes to look at the agent before her. "I don't care what you have to do to get this hospital to agree, but he is never to be left alone. One of us must be with him at all times, especially if there are people moving in and out of the room."
> 
> Drummer raised a brow. "You don't trust the nurses and doctors?"
> 
> "Would you?" Mickey countered.
> 
> The older man shook his head slowly, the one corner of his mouth curling upward. "Not for an instant."
> 
> The two shared a look for a moment before Drummer slowly picked himself up off of the pew and stepped into the aisle again, buttoning up the front of his jacket as he looked down at Mickey once more. His face became neutral and guarded once more as he cleared his throat, lifting his head a little higher.
> 
> "Your babysitter should be here shortly," he said, eyes dropping as he did up the last button. "No doubt someone will be keeping an eye on you for the next little while."
> 
> Mickey resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Don't remind me."
> 
> "Good day, Miss Valdez."
> 
> For a moment Mikayla watched him go, mentally debating whether or not to say anything further to the perfect stranger about to leave the room. But as he neared the doorway that would lead him out to the hallway she found herself twisting around a little more, biting back the ache in her body as she did to call out to him once more.
> 
> "Agent Drummer."
> 
> He paused, momentarily turning back around to look at her.
> 
> "I never did thank you," she said quietly. "For the part you played in rescuing us."
> 
> He blinked at her, seeming to be rather unaccustomed to being thanked or acknowledged in anyway. "Don't thank me until we take care of Church…"
> 
> Nodding in understanding, Mickey offered the man a bit of a smile. For an instant he seemed to return it, but he quickly let it fall away from his face and he left the room without another word. Mickey exhaled slowly as she found herself alone once more, eyes moving away from the door and back toward the altar that sat at the front of the room. She hadn't expected to make it out of that building alive. But now that she had it seemed that the danger level had jumped to a new and ridiculous level. Not just for herself but for Barney as well, the last person she had ever expected to come waltzing back into her life after such a prolonged absence.
> 
> Was there anything more that she could do? Her mind whirled madly as she tried to come up with all of the other things that could happen, all of the options that she would need to try before she was finally able to rest easy. But her mind and body were far too tired for her to think clearly and the young woman ended up rubbing her forehead when it started to ache. She couldn't think clearly right now. The lack of food, fluids and sleep were beginning to catch up to her. But she needed to keep going. She couldn't rest now, not when Barney was still so vulnerable and they didn't know how close Church really was.
> 
> "Hey…"
> 
> Her head shot up once more to see one of the younger team members standing almost in the exact same spot that Drummer had occupied only moments before, looking down at her with a soft smile. She recognized him now as the one who had first come into the room to help her before the building had exploded, the one who had gotten her onto her feet and refused to leave her behind even at the risk of his own life. He spoke to her in a gentle tone of voice that didn't startle her from her thoughts, but rather beckoned her from them until her eyes were able to focus once again.
> 
> "May I?"
> 
> Again, she found herself nodding quietly as he slid into the space beside her on the bench in a way that seemed eerily similar to the conversation she had just experienced.
> 
> Mickey blinked slowly at him. "You're Thorn, right?"
> 
> The boy nodded, his smile still in place. "I am," he told her lightly. "I hope you don't mind…but Lee's really adamant that you not be left by yourself right now."
> 
> "So basically neither you nor I have a choice in your being here," she translated.
> 
> "Yeah, pretty much."
> 
> Mickey let out a sigh, leaning heavily against the hard wooden back of the pew as she rubbed at her tired eyes. She didn't have the patience for this. She didn't have the energy. And while she knew that Lee and the others were doing this with the best of intentions it was going to become very annoying very quickly if she was constantly being shadowed by someone else. If Church thought that he was going to come after her then he was more than welcome to try. The chances of him launching any sort of assault so soon after their escape were slim, and so she knew that she at least had a small window of time in order to plan her next move before he figured things out and moved against her.
> 
> If he thought he was going to corner Barney a second time he was in for one hell of a surprise.
> 
> "Look, don't take this the wrong way," Thorn began, twisting to look at her better. "But you look awful."
> 
> Mickey raised a brow. "Is there a right way to take a comment like that?" she asked him dryly.
> 
> Thorn shook his head, lifting a hand in quiet defense. "What I mean is that you should probably try to get some sleep, and I don't think that sitting in the chapel all night is a good way of getting it."
> 
> "I'm not leaving this hospital," repeated the brunette for the millionth time that day. "And if Lee thinks that he can send some young gun like you in here to convince me otherwise-"
> 
> "Whoa!" he declared, now with both hands raised to stop her. "I'm not here to make you leave, okay? Lee's just as worried about Barney as the rest of us are. But I also know that he's worried about  _you_. If I hadn't volunteered to come and sit with you Gunnar was going to march right back to the hospital and carry you out himself…you and I both know he could have done it too."
> 
> The frown that settled onto Mikayla's face was perhaps the darkest one that Thorn had seen in a while now, though he found that it wasn't all that unfamiliar to him. Eerily enough he had seen the same look on Barney's face at least once before, when Drummer had shown up at the hangar and he had seen Church's video. It was haunting really, to see her look so much like her old man when he was only just beginning to know him. Already he could see the beginnings of what made the two so alike. So he supposed the real question was just how much of the old man she saw in herself. Was this desire to keep him safe out of the love that a daughter bears her father? Or was it more guilt based?
> 
> Knowing better than to ask such questions now when he was little more than a stranger, Thorn simply put them out of mind for the time being. It wasn't any of his business, and he highly doubted it would ever be. But in the off chance that there was an opportunity for him to figure things out and make the picture just a little clearer…well, who was he to turn down such a chance?
> 
> "Look, why don't you just relax?" he asked her gently. "I'm right here…I promise I won't try anything funny. But you really do need to rest otherwise you're going to crash."
> 
> Mickey seemed to watch him with a closely guarded expression for a few moments before she shifted against the bench. Her body language betrayed how uncomfortable she was now, but it seemed that she was considering his offer. He had put his life on the line for her, she reasoned to herself. When word had come that the building was rigged to blow he hadn't abandoned her as she had instructed him to, but rather scooped her up into his arms and run the risk of being slowed down by her added weight. That had to say something about his character. Or perhaps his fear of the others, she thought with an inward smirk.
> 
> "Alright," she said slowly. "But only for a few minutes. I'd prefer you to be hovering outside of Barney's room…though I don't suppose I could convince you to go. Just-"
> 
> Here she paused, regarding him again. But Thorn was quick to jump on her pause and give her a reassuring nod in silent understanding. He didn't need her to tell him outright what it was that she wanted. He understood. And it seemed that Mickey was rather grateful for not having to explain herself, a soft sigh falling from her lips as her shoulders slumped a little.
> 
> With a wave of his hand, Thorn opened his arms a little. "Come here. I'm slightly more comfortable than the bench, and I promise," he added when she narrowed her eyes at him. "That I will keep my hands to myself."
> 
> Though she hesitated for a moment longer, Mickey allowed herself to slowly slide toward him on the bench, shifting her body so that she could lay across the hard wooden surface with her lower half. Her upper body pressed lightly into Thorn's chest as she lowered herself down, feeling her shoulder come into contact with the one side of his body. His arms gently wound around her for support, but he kept his word and was mindful of where his hands were placed so as not to make her anymore uncomfortable. As she settled in and adjusted herself minimally for comfort she found that the battle to keep her eyes open became too great to continue. Within a few minutes they had closed and Mickey drifted off to sleep, carefully watched by one who didn't intend to wake her after only a few moments.
> 
> That promise, at least, he intended to break.


	14. Remember That

> Needless to say, Mickey had been rather annoyed with Thorn when she woke in the earlier hours of the morning and learned how much time had passed. But that annoyance had lasted for only a short while before Luna had appeared with breakfast, announcing that she had just finished a conversation with the Hospital Director and that Mickey was allowed to make her way back to Barney's side. With a chocolate chip muffin in hand she forced her body to rise from the pew and move down the hallway before she collapsed into the poorly upholstered chair at his bedside with an audible groan. Sleeping on the hard surface of the pew had not been the best place for her body to lie while it was trying to recover from her injuries, though she had to admit that she had at least been warm with Thorn's arms around her.
> 
> Neither Thorn nor Luna bothered to say anything as they watched her leave, exchanging a simple glance and a roll of their eyes. Luna jerked her head toward the door to signal that Thorn was allowed to leave now that she had arrived to take up watch over both Mickey and Barney. And he made no verbal response to her before he disappeared down the hallway and made to exit the building.
> 
> The rest of the day continued to pass in this fashion. Every few hours another member of the team would appear and quietly change places with whomever was standing guard, having taken the unoccupied chair from the other side of the bed and placed it against the wall behind Mickey so that they had a clear view of both the door and of her and Barney. Food was brought shortly after noon in an attempt to coax her to eat something, but Mickey's lack of interest was quickly made evident when the smell of it caused her to pull away in distaste, shaking her head.
> 
> "You need to eat something," Doc coaxed gently, continuing to hold the sandwich out to her. "I don't think you've really eaten since before Church got you."
> 
> "I'm not hungry," Mickey told him stubbornly. "And whatever _that_ is is making my stomach turn."
> 
> "Okay fine," the older man conceded, pulling the sandwich away to throw it back onto his own chair. "So maybe not salami. But you _do_ need to get something into your system, Mickey. Otherwise you're not going to get better."
> 
> The young woman turned her head slowly to face the older man, the weariness evident in her gaze despite her best efforts to conceal it from him. "Look, Doc….I appreciate what you're trying to do, alright? I really do. But right now I'm not concerned about me. I'm the one who's still conscious and walking around."
> 
> She was feeling guilty, Doc realized. The more he watched her the more the realization began to sink into his body. Despite the animosity that had been between Barney and Mikayla during their last encounter at the hangar, something had changed in their brief second meeting. The fact that they had been locked together in the same room was no accident, of that he was sure. Church had probably thought that the union would serve to mentally torture the both of them while they were trapped there, and if he had even the slightest idea of the history that lay between father and daughter he had probably been right. Only they would know what words had been exchanged during the time of their capture, and though part of Doc wanted to know what was said he didn't dare to ask. That was between Mickey and her father.
> 
> Still, that didn't prevent the older man from worrying about the two of them as a result. Given how bad things had been since the blowout that had finally prompted Barney to put distance between himself and the girl, things had obviously changed. Somehow she had adopted at least part of the lifestyle that her father had, something that Doc knew was absolutely against any wishes Barney might have had for her future. Yet she had been easily lured into Church's trap. She had been placed on Bonaparte's radar to make up the rest of Trench's team.
> 
> And to be honest, that really bothered Doc.
> 
> "Maybe," acknowledged the older man, nodding his head a little in agreement to Mikayla's words. "But that doesn't mean that you're in the clear yet. The doctor said you've got a cracked rib, probably from the way they had you tied to that chair. You're bruised, malnourished, overtired…Mickey, if you're not careful you're going to hurt yourself more."
> 
> The brunette kept her focus on Doc's dark eyes with her own, breathing a slow sigh as she came to accept the truth in his words. For a moment her gaze seemed to drop a little, as if she weren't fully able to face him. But then it rose again, slowly inching upward as the weariness became more pronounced in the lines that seemed to appear in her face and the heavy bags that sat beneath her eyes.
> 
> "He came after me, after all of the horrible things that I said to him."
> 
> "Of course he did," Doc told her gently. "Mick…no matter how badly things might have ended the last time, he's still your Dad."
> 
> But the young woman shook her head. "He was never my Dad. That implies that he was always around when I needed him. He and I just happen to share the same DNA."
> 
> Doc wasn't fully convinced. "He still cares."
> 
> "Well then he's had a funny way of showing it in the past."
> 
> The two of them fell in an uncomfortable silence then, with the brunette turning her head back to look at the unconscious form in the bed while Doc continued to frown heavily in her direction. This situation was beyond baffling to him. Even though Barney was the one who was laying still in the hospital bed, he couldn't help but feel that Mickey was the one who had come out of this with the most damage. After a nasty blow out and years of not speaking to one another, to suddenly be confronted by the father you had lashed out at in your youth? He still had no idea of how Church had even come to know about Mickey. Barney had always thought he was being so careful in keeping the two of them hidden away in Spain like that, limiting his visits so as not to attract any unwanted attention that might put them in harm's way.
> 
> The older man pressed his lips tightly together in frustration, not knowing how he was supposed to handle this. It wasn't like he had kids of his own. The honourary "uncle" status that he had achieved when Mikayla was growing up was about the closest thing Doc had ever gotten to being a father. And it wasn't as if she was a little kid anymore, or even a teenager. Nope…Mickey was a full grown woman who had every right to make her own decisions in life. That seemed to include walking right into the same lifestyle that her old man had adopted.
> 
> The very one he hadn't wanted for her.
> 
> "Can you stop staring please? You're going to burn holes in my head."
> 
> She hadn't even turned to look at him, her gaze was still focused on the slow rise and fall in Barney's chest that told her he was still alive. Her arms had folded themselves tightly over her chest now though. It was a protective gesture that he had seen her use many times before when Barney was involved. Especially in her teenaged years.
> 
> Doc sighed heavily and dropped his gaze to the floor as he rose to his feet once again. "Will you eat something today?" he asked her. "Please?"
> 
> "Yes…"
> 
> "Preferably before midnight tonight?"
> 
> "Doc-"
> 
> "Caesar will be coming in a bit to keep an eye on things. What can he bring that you'll actually eat?"
> 
> Biting back a frustrated groan, the brunette shook her head a little. Absolutely nothing that she could think of sounded really appealing to her senses. It made her stomach churn dangerously just to think of food. Church hadn't exactly fed her a steady diet when he had taken her hostage, and the days leading up to the fake mission had left her mentally angry over her reunion with Barney. When was the last time she had eaten properly? Hell, Mickey couldn't remember. But she knew that he wasn't going to let her get away without giving him a straight answer, and so the girl said the first thing that came to mind.
> 
> "Chicken club wrap, no tomato, bacon, cheddar cheese and caesar dressing."
> 
> Only with that response did the older man seem to be slightly mollified. She turned her head slightly to see that some of the tension had slipped away from his body at her request, and a more satisfied look had overtaken his face. Doc nodded to her and turned on his heel to march out of the room, presumably to give his companion a heads up that he needed to bring food with him when he arrived at the hospital. And not the stuff they served in the cafeteria here either. If there was one thing that Mickey knew about Doc, it was his personal disliking of hospital prepared foods.
> 
> Now alone with only Barney's unconscious form for company, Mickey breathed a soft sigh and closed her eyes as she pressed the heel of her palm against her forehead. The pressure behind her one eye was beginning to build, a sure sign that another of her ridiculous headaches was going to make an appearance. She certainly wasn't looking forward to trying to cope with that. But the last thing that she wanted to do was ask for aspirin or something that might help. Then the others would know that something was wrong and they would once again begin to pressure her into leaving the hospital for the benefit of her own health. She wanted to fall asleep in a nice soft bed. Really, she did.
> 
> But in her heart she knew that she couldn't abandon Barney like this, not when he had gone through so much to try and save her. Even if he'd gotten himself captured and tortured for his troubles, she thought to herself. He shouldn't have come after her. Church shouldn't have had the slightest clue that the two of them were even related. It was frustrating to think that she had spent so long covering her tracks and making her own way only to be sucked back into his life like this. He'd chosen that life over her.
> 
> She just needed to remember that.


	15. Heart to Heart

> Three days of sitting by his side, waiting for some kind of sign that he was going to eventually recover from his wounds. Three days of taking her own broken form and silently pacing back and forth across the floor of his hospital room so that her body didn't completely seize up on her. Three days of constantly being shadowed by a member of the team, because they all refused to leave the two injured parties to their own devices.
> 
> The older members of the team might have had some care for her, but Mikayla wasn't a fool. She was well aware of the fact that the younger recruits knew nothing about her. They might not have even known that Barney was her father. Considering the fact that she spent so little time talking to any of them there really was no way of knowing. And it wasn't exactly a topic that Mickey was interested in bringing up. She had spent years trying to push his memory aside, reminding herself almost daily that he had chosen his money-making lifestyle over living with her and her mother. He hadn't been interested in being a father then, so why would she think that things had changed? She had been sixteen years old when she had last laid eyes on him…and now here she was, sitting at his bedside and hovering constantly for the slightest sign of recovery.
> 
> She must be losing her mind.
> 
> Mickey pushed herself to her feet once more and started pacing back and forth across the floor once again. By this point she was surprised that there wasn't a groove to mark the line that she had taken to walking, having refused to leave the room while he was still unconscious in case he slipped away on her. The bastard wasn't going to get away that easily, she thought bitterly to herself. And if he thought he was, then he had another thing coming.
> 
> There was silence between them, and though Mickey didn't look over toward her she knew that Luna was likely watching her carefully. Probably with a raised eyebrow as she silently questioned the sanity of the other woman.
> 
> "You don't actually have to hover," Mickey told her quickly without establishing eye contact. "I'm sure you're just as tired of this as I am."
> 
> "I'm not the one who spends every day in the hospital sitting at his side," Luna pointed out quietly, her eyes never leaving Mickey as she paced back and forth across the expanse of the room. "And between you and me, I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one getting a decent amount of sleep."
> 
> A heavy sigh fell from the lips of the brunette, a hand reaching up to rub at her tired eyes. "Neither of us should even be here," she said, her tone a little bitter. "All he had to do was take the damn paperwork and just let me leave. He could have had whatever Mom wanted him to have and I could have continued on with my life…"
> 
> "A life kinda like his?"
> 
> "No," Mickey said quickly, her dark orbs finally lifting to make contact with Luna. "I was putting all of this behind me. I hadn't planned to start doing….whatever the hell _this_ is…but when Mom got sick I didn't have a choice."
> 
> She clenched her jaw together as she turned her eyes away, letting them fall back to Barney. Mentally, she seemed to argue with herself. Was it worth it to tell this stranger why she had turned out like this? It wasn't like it was Luna's business after all…it's was no one else's business but her own. Mickey ran a hand through her dark locks as another sigh left her lips, her shoulders slumping forward a little as defeat began to creep into her body. She had been holding onto her anger for so long that now she felt like she was missing a part of herself.
> 
> It was the anger that had kept her going in the years since she had last seen Barney, remembering the scene that she had caused after her graduation ceremony. There hadn't been too many other people around them at the time, but there were certainly enough eyes to make a sixteen year old girl feel self-conscious when it was all said and done. She'd cried herself to sleep that night over the whole affair, letting Barney break her heart for the very last time before she had hidden it away within a steel box and refused to let it hurt that way again. And until her mother had been on her deathbed, she had succeeded. But her mother was gone, Mickey reminded herself quickly as she turned back to Luna. And that was where this whole affair had started.
> 
> "I haven't seen Barney since I was sixteen," she told Luna slowly, wondering just how much she dared to share with the girl who barely looked older than she was. "We had a falling out and I told him not to bother coming back. He'd broken too many promises."
> 
> For a moment she paused, watching the expressions on Luna's face for a sign of what she may or may not already know. It was the quiet nod that gave it away. This much the other girl knew, though from which member of the group, Mickey wasn't sure. Not that it really mattered, she supposed. It spared her from having to share all of the details of a high school graduation gone wrong.
> 
> So Mikayla continued. "I was a really angry child after that. Mom put me into some martial arts classes to give me a way of channeling my anger, but it wasn't enough. So I started running, and going to the shooting range with a couple of the male nurses she worked with at the hospital. Maybe part of me wanted to know what the hell was so great about running around shooting a gun….I don't know. But I found that I was pretty good at that too."
> 
> "When Mom started getting sick, I used it as an escape so I didn't have to watch her suffer. She used to get so hopeful when Barney would come and visit, like she expected him to stay that time…and eventually a kid starts to notice the heartbreak in her eyes when he leaves. I didn't want to see her hurt anymore. But once the cancer diagnosis came in I knew that she was going to need me to help her so that we could still survive in Spain. It wasn't hard to find a job I thought I could handle."
> 
> No, the tough part had certainly been in getting someone to believe that she was capable of handling herself. Mickey had never been a big girl. Tall perhaps, but certainly not as muscular and intimidating as Luna was. It was clear just from looking at her among the guys that she was able to hold her own. Mickey was the type to stand out like a sore thumb, the one that most guys singled out as being the easy target because of her youth and sex. None of them ever counted on having their ass handed to them by someone less than half their size.
> 
> A hand lifted once more to run through her dark locks, gripping them tightly for a moment in consideration as she chose her next words. "It was an easy way to make money without becoming a street walker," she finally told Luna. "I was good at it, and it was only supposed to be temporary. I was generally the decoy…dressed as a little old lady or in an outfit that drew the male eye, if you catch my drift." She'd worn more than a few of those little numbers in the past few years. "Eventually I realized that Mom wasn't getting better. I had to accept the fact that I had basically succeeded in absolutely nothing. And when I told her what I was doing she immediately begged me to stop. She'd lost the only man she had ever loved to that lifestyle…she didn't want to lose me too."
> 
> If she had lost Luna during any of this, there was absolutely nothing on the face of the other woman to tell her so. She seemed to be listening rather intently, her eyes never once drifting away from Mickey's face as she continued to process the information she was given. Nor did she seem interested in interrupting either. If there were questions on her mind, which Mickey wouldn't have doubted at all, she was keeping them to herself for the time being.
> 
> Her body was beginning to feel the strain of her pacing now, knees shaking slightly from the effort of keeping her upright. Mikayla shifted her weight slightly and leaned up against the wall in an effort to relieve her legs a little, moving back and forth between the balls of her feet in order to stretch the muscles a little. A grimace formed on her face each time something stretched, the healing process having moved at a much slower pace than she was used to. Not that she was doing a whole hell of a lot in this hospital room, she thought to herself. After a job she would have gone back to her training, tending to her own cuts and bruises, assembling whatever she needed for the next job…but right now she was stuck.
> 
> And her body didn't like it.
> 
> "She made me promise I'd deliver all of the paperwork for the will myself," Mickey admitted in the same bitter tone that she had previously employed. "Which I technically did…"
> 
> "You just put on a disguise to do it," Luna offered.
> 
> The brunette nodded. "Can you blame me?"
> 
> At that, Luna offered her a bit of a shrug. "I don't know. If things between you and Barney were really that bad, I don't suppose I can. I don't know how I'd react if I had to go and visit my Dad after all of that."
> 
> There seemed to be no sense of judgment in her tone, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. The look on her face seemed to consider the matter though, which was something new. Most people tended not to give a shit about the fact that a girl had argued with her father, never mind the fact that she had ended up almost exactly like him. They would just brush her off as a girl with "daddy issues" and never give her a second glance. Yet there was something in Luna's face that had Mickey tilting her head a little as she scrutinized the details of the other woman's face. Maybe that was just it….the fact that she was another woman. She couldn't necessarily rely on her strength alone to survive being a member of Barney's team. She had to be smart, fast, able to think ahead of the punch that the other guy hadn't even decided to throw yet…
> 
> A long stretch of silence fell between them as each fell into her own thoughts, the occasional frown or twitch in the jaw being the only sign that they were mentally still on the same subject. It was impossible to tell how many minutes passed them by exactly. Neither bothered to look at the clock. Nor did the silence ever begin to feel uncomfortable.
> 
> Another sensation that was completely new to Mikayla.
> 
> "He was really broken up when you left, you know?" Luna finally asked her, voice quiet as if she were afraid that her boss might wake up in that instant and overhear their conversation. "He wanted to go after you. He really wanted the chance to talk to you about things. Lee told him that he needed to let you go."
> 
> "Lee?"
> 
> Luna nodded firmly. "I think he saw just how much the both of you were hurting, and he knew that as long as Barney continued to relive the past and question his choices, he was going to go mad. I mean…this job requires your attention at all times or you'll get yourself or a teammate killed. Getting yourself killed would hurt your team, but getting one of them killed would hurt the team _and_ haunt you for the rest of your life."
> 
> Mickey closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose a little. "What's your point?"
> 
> "My point is that Barney never forgave himself for walking away before. And he was willing to die if it meant there was even the slightest chance that Church would let you go. It's the kind of sacrifice that a father would make for his daughter without a second thought…because he sees it as his job. And because he loves you."
> 
> She paused for a moment, her eyes narrowing slightly as she folded her arms over her chest and looked across the room at Mikayla. "You can pretend all you want…but if a part of you didn't still care for the old man, you wouldn't be here. You wouldn't have tried to help him when he was dying, and you wouldn't have stayed to see what happened afterward. If you really hated him, you'd have gone as soon as we landed."
> 
> Again, there was a silence that fell into the conversation, but this time it wasn't nearly as comfortable as the previous one had been. Loathe as Mickey was to admit it, she knew that there was a ring of truth to the words that Luna spoke. How else could she explain the fact that she had been hovering by his bedside for the last three days? She could have put thousands of miles between them and hidden away so that she would never see Barney Ross again in her lifetime. She could have been out hunting Church to get revenge for the fact that the bastard had abducted and used her as bait. She could have done absolutely anything…yet there she was.
> 
> Her jaw tightened a little as she thought about it, slightly irritated at being called out by this total stranger who knew nothing about her and yet seemed to know her so well. She tried to tell herself that it was simply a lucky guess, but she knew that it would be a lie. Luna had pretty well hit the nail on the head.
> 
> "Do you know why I chose to use Valdez as my last name?" she asked Luna.
> 
> The other woman raised an eyebrow. "Because you were pissed off?"
> 
> Mickey shrugged a little. "Partially…but with my mother dead, there was no one else to find. No one would think to look at Barney Ross. So if I got caught on a job or killed-"
> 
> "Nobody could use you against him," Luna finished.
> 
> Mickey's dark curls bounced a little as she nodded. "It was supposed to protect us both. I always told myself that I didn't really care, but I did. I wanted to avoid the very thing that Church managed to do." Now it was her turn to feel her gaze narrow a little, standing back on her own two feet as her hands began to curl into tight fists. "Is Drummer tracking him down?"
> 
> "He's trying," Luna admitted, giving a bit of a nod. "But he knows how to avoid the agency. The information we had on his alias was information that he planted for them to find. We might not find him again, unless…"
> 
> "Unless?"
> 
> "Unless he finds out that Barney is alive and comes after him again."
> 
> Damn it, that wasn't quite what Mickey wanted to hear but she couldn't deny that the thought had crossed her mind a time or two in the last few days. If Church had been desperate enough to hunt her down in order to lure Barney into his trap, he wouldn't be satisfied to learn that he had failed to kill the old man. He would come after him again as soon as he had figured out where he was. And Mickey had an awful feeling that he would figure it out sooner rather than later.
> 
> Barney wasn't going to be safe in the hospital for too much longer.
> 
> "He can't stay here."
> 
> Luna's head instantly nodded in agreement. "We're trying to figure it out. The agency is apparently a little reluctant to move against one of their own-"
> 
> "Like I give a shit," Mickey hissed."
> 
> "But the team is determined that they're going to find something. Tool's been on this since he left," Luna continued as if Mickey hadn't interrupted her at all. "And I think he's getting close to something."
> 
> "Good. I'm getting really sick of looking at the 'hospital green' on the walls."
> 
> At this, Luna laughed for the first time since Mickey had met her. "I think we can both agree on that one."
> 
> Mickey returned her smirk with a small upturn of her own lips. In some strange way it felt like she had discovered a kindred spirit in Luna, the only other woman she had encountered…and certainly the only one who looked tough enough to handle the jobs that Barney and his team took on. She was tough, she'd already proven that much. But she wasn't hardened by the years of blood that would inevitably stain her hands in time. She still had some spirit in her. It was no wonder the old man had recruited her to the team.
> 
> She and Mikayla were a lot alike.


	16. Father

> “Mickey-“
> 
> “Don’t even start with me, Lee…”
> 
> “You need-“
> 
> “I don’t need to do anything.”
> 
> The look of frustration that he wore was one that was usually reserved for when he bantered with Barney. And that was exactly what Lee felt like he was doing in that moment as Mikayla stubbornly avoided his eye and refused to budge from her place against the wall. For almost an hour now he had been trying to reason with the girl, attempting to convince her that remaining within the hospital walls really wasn’t doing her any good. She needed to get outside into the fresh air. She needed to focus on the recovery of her own body from the ordeal that she had suffered at Church’s hands. The last place she needed to be was hovering by the bedside of a man who hadn’t woken up since he had first arrived in the hospital. But despite his constant badgering, that was exactly where the young woman had placed herself.
> 
> “Have you even-“
> 
> “Can you just stop?” Mickey asked as her eyes darted over toward the man. But after a moment, her gaze softened a little. “Look…I know you mean well, Lee. I know you’re worried. But this is something I have to do.”
> 
> Lee frowned darkly, folding his arms over his chest. “You know that Barney would hate having you hover like this.”
> 
> “And he’d appreciate it more if it were someone else?”
> 
> She certainly had him there, the man thought to himself. He’d known Barney Ross long enough to know that he really wouldn’t appreciate anyone lurking about the way that they were…and unfortunately, he was also aware of the fact that it wasn’t just Mickey. The team was still concerned about the fact that there had been no real change in his recovery since they had brought him in, and without a solid lead to follow in terms of hunting down Church, they were left to sit around the hangar and wait. But you could only clean the weapons so many times before the pressure of waiting started to get to you.
> 
> The team had started making rotation changes almost hourly just so that they could occupy a little more of this free time they had on their hands, which had annoyed the hospital staff at least once or twice in the past twenty-four hours. They tended not to appreciate having so many people around all the time, especially when they were asking for frequent updates on the same patient and always being given the same answer.
> 
> Lee bit the tip of his tongue for a moment, debating his next question. “And what if he doesn’t wake up, Mick?”
> 
> A sudden chill rushed through the room in that moment. All movement seemed to cease, and indeed it almost felt as if time were standing still. The look that crossed Mikayla’s face was something between horror and heartache, and Lee regretted asking as soon as his eyes found hers. Not too long ago she had lost her mother. And though the relationship with her father was almost non-existent, he could only imagine how painful it must have been to contemplate his death as well. Yet there was a terrifying sense of reality in it. Barney might never wake up. Church might have succeeded in the slow and painful death that he had clearly desired for the man to suffer.
> 
> So what if he won?
> 
> Her lips parted as if to speak, but no sound came through. Then came the heavier breaths that told him her heart was racing madly in her chest. Fingers tightened as she held her arms a little more closely to her chest, a sure sign of anxiety. Lee crossed the distance rather quickly then and set his hands on either one of her shoulders, giving her a bit of a squeeze to help her regain her focus.
> 
> “Mickey…look at me…”
> 
> Her dark head turned with a snap as wide eyes stared at him. “It would be my fault,” she managed to whisper.
> 
> Lee shook his head firmly, wanting to banish that notion before it settled in too deeply. “No,” came his steady tone. “Church did this, Mickey.”
> 
> “But he came after me. I must have slipped up somehow on another job, because nobody should ever have been able to connect me to Barney. Nobody. I used Mom’s name, I got rid of the birth certificate with his name on it…I did everything I could think of-“
> 
> “Mikayla, you need to stop this. You’re doing yourself more harm than good by letting Church get inside your head. And if he knew that you were alive then that would be exactly what he wanted. To torture you from a distance.”
> 
> There was enough sense in his words for Mikayla to register them, but it seemed that the young woman was still battling with her own conscience. There had to be something that she had done in order to lead Church to Barney. Some tiny slip up that she hadn’t thought of, a minor detail that only a desperate man would be able to see and use to his advantage. For that was what Church was, she realized, a desperate man. Why else would he continue this relentless pursuit of getting revenge on another human being? And what the hell was the problem to begin with?
> 
> The situation brought forth more questions than answers, which did little to soothe her already agitated frame of mind.
> 
> With a heavy sigh, Mikayla leaned forward until her head rested upon Lee’s chest. Her shoulders slumped forward as the feeling of exhaustion began to make its way into her body, finally getting the control that it had wanted for the last several days.
> 
> “One more night,” she begged him softly. “One more night of watching him and if he doesn’t wake up, I’ll get myself a hotel room and sleep. I promise.”
> 
> The older man shook his head a little, slipping his arms around her body in a supportive manner lest her knees give out beneath her. “The hangar will be a safer place for you,” he grumbled. “You’ll be comfortable enough and the team can keep an eye on you.”
> 
> “I don’t need a babysitter.”
> 
> “I’m not asking, Mickey.”
> 
> Another heavy sigh fell from the lips of the brunette as she slowly lifted her head from his shoulder, narrowing her gaze at him with a bit of a smirk. “And you say my old man is stubborn.”
> 
> Lee huffed a little. “He is. And damn it, I know that’s where you bloody well get it from too.”
> 
> Understanding that there was very little room left for argument with Lee, Mickey slowly nodded. “Fine,” she told him. “After tonight I will go back to the hangar and I will stay there until something happens, okay?”
> 
> The old man nodded firmly. Though he didn’t say anything outright, he had this awful feeling that they were still not out of the woods yet. Church hadn’t made a move to suggest that he knew that Barney was alive, but that didn’t do anything to set Lee at ease. The man had previously worked for the CIA and had had access to an unknown amount of information and resources during that time. There was no way for them to possibly know what other aces might be up the man’s sleeve if he were really that serious about getting revenge on Barney. Hell, they still didn’t yet understand what the whole thing was about. Everything had been settled after they had secured the plutonium…or so he had thought.
> 
> So what the hell was the problem now?
> 
> Silence fell into the room at that moment as the two settled into their own thoughts, Lee watching Mickey and she in turn watching the unconscious form of Barney Ross who still hadn’t moved on the hospital bed. The endless waiting game was beginning to wear on them all. Nobody was sleeping or eating properly. They were searching for something to do that would keep their hands busy and allow them to channel whatever anger they held onto. In truth, the team was a mess. But without a way in which to try and fix it, they knew that this was the reality of their current situation. They just had to be patient and wait it out. Sooner or later Church would show his hand. And then they would be ready.
> 
> “Lee.”
> 
> Both heads turned toward the doorway, where Smilee stood with his arms folded tightly over his broad chest. “You might want to head back. Drummer thinks he might have something for us. They’re just waiting for you.”
> 
> He turned rather quickly for the door, pausing only long enough to mutter something that Mickey couldn’t make out before he turned the corner and vanished, leaving her alone in the room with John Smilee for the second time in less than fourty-eight hours. The brunette watched him for a moment, raising an eyebrow in his direction.
> 
> “Weren’t you just here?”
> 
> Smilee shrugged in response. “I volunteered. I thought it was a little more important that Doc be there with Lee and the others when Drummer showed up.”
> 
> “Do you know what he found?” Mickey asked, perhaps a little too quickly.
> 
> But the young man just shook his head as he wandered a few steps into the room. “Not a clue. I figure they’ll let me know soon enough.” His eyes then turned to Barney, and he nodded his head toward the old man. “How is he?”
> 
> “Same as before,” she told him quietly.
> 
> Blue eyes flickered from Barney to Mikayla, whose gaze had returned to her father’s motionless form. There was no mistaking the weary look that she wore, Smilee thought to himself. The lines under her eyes betrayed how little she had slept since they had first brought him in, and the lack of colour in her cheeks certainly said that she hadn’t left his side to venture outside in that time either. And again the lad found himself wondering if this show of dedication was genuine or if it stemmed from many years of pent up guilt over how they had initially parted ways. There was a part of his brain that was absolutely dying to know.
> 
> “He should blame me, you know…”
> 
> Smilee blinked at her, a little confused by the sudden statement before he managed to gather his wits about him again. “He won’t.”
> 
> “But he should,” the young woman insisted softly. “I’ve been sitting here for days trying to come up with just how Church managed to locate me like that. I did _everything_ I could possibly do in order to hide who I was…and he still found me….”
> 
> “You’re going to give yourself a headache if you keep it up,” he told her bluntly. “Don’t forget, the dude used to work for the CIA.”
> 
> “That still doesn’t explain-“
> 
> “Look,” Smilee said sharply, cutting her off as he came to stand in front of her, looking down at her slightly smaller frame. “We can’t change it, okay? He did it…end of story. Right now we need to focus on finding the son of a bitch so that he doesn’t hurt anyone else.”
> 
> Mickey blinked at him, initially startled by the way in which he approached her before the anger began to settle into the depths of her dark brown eyes. “Then what are you doing here? You should be out there with the team, looking for Church.”
> 
> Smilee rolled his eyes. “You know _exactly_ why I’m here. Because Lee doesn’t want you left alone in case Church manages to figure out that both you and Barney are _here_.”
> 
> A bitter laugh sounded in Mikayla’s throat, this time startling Smilee a little. “Don’t play the fool, Smilee. You’re here to make sure that I don’t figure it out first and go running off to get revenge on Church for what he’s done to me and my father.”
> 
> “Huh…”
> 
> The look that Smilee gave her in that instant was a curious one. He leaned back a little bit and observed her, tilting his head slightly as if he were trying to see her from a new angle. And Mickey didn’t like it. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, her arms coming up to fold across her own chest as if they alone would provide some kind of protective barrier between herself and him. For several long moments he didn’t speak. And then the lingering silence became too much for Mickey to handle.
> 
> “What?”
> 
> Smilee shrugged. “That’s just the first time I think I’ve heard you refer to Barney as being your father…that’s all.”
> 
> Mickey looked at him as if he had just slapped her across the face. Her eyes grew a little wide and her mouth was slightly agape, staring at him with a look of disbelief. It had been such a subconscious thing, to refer to Barney Ross as her father like that. As if all those years of pent up hatred and anger had suddenly vanished and were no longer real.
> 
> She couldn’t remember the last time she had really called him that and meant it. It would have been long before their falling out, she had decided, and that was a number of years ago. So why now? Why after all that had happened did she suddenly find herself creating that connection again? With the absence of a father in her life for so many years, one would think that allowing him back in would have been nigh on impossible. And yet there she was, standing in the hospital room with someone who was little better than a stranger…and he had called her out on something she had sworn she would never again dabble in.
> 
> Family.
> 
> The brunette caught herself and quickly closed her mouth, dropping her eyes away from his face to instead stare at the floor. Already she could feel her cheeks beginning to burn for reasons she didn’t understand, a frustrating thing for a woman who was so used to keeping her emotions under wraps. Emotions made you vulnerable in the field and put your life on the line, as well as anyone else you might have been working with at the time. They were dangerous things to play with and so Mickey had done her utmost to bury them as deeply as she could. Her anger would serve her better than her sadness or her heartbreak. It was why she hadn’t cried when she had lost her mother. Because the emotional vulnerability on her next job might have earned her a space in the cemetery beside her.
> 
> “Can I get you something to eat?”
> 
> Dark eyes quickly lifted again at his question, searching his face for a moment before her tongue finally caught up with the rest of her and decided to work. “Um…sure, yeah…”
> 
> He offered her a bit of a smile, the one corner of his mouth turning upward. But was it amusement that made him look at her like that or something else? “How does a roast beef sandwich sound?”
> 
> “Sounds pretty delicious right now,” Mickey confessed.
> 
> “Okay.” Smilee nodded at her, taking a step toward the door. “I’ll be right back with it, okay? Don’t go anywhere while I’m gone…and don’t do anything stupid. Lee will kill me if anything happens to you while I’m here…even if it’s your own fault.”
> 
> She laughed softly. “Noted.”
> 
> Blue eyes watched her for another long moment before he finally turned and left the room in search of food. Now it was only her and Barney, and Mikayla suddenly felt drawn to move herself across the room to sit at his side once more. Only this time, she didn’t sit in the chair that she had been in before. She crossed the distance with light footsteps and took his larger hand in her own, lifting it slightly so that she could settle on the edge of the mattress. She brought his hand to rest in her lap, gingerly holding it with her two smaller ones.
> 
> He certainly wasn’t as young as she had remembered him being. As her eyes roamed his hand she could see the telltale signs of age and abuse, even with all of the decoration that he had placed on his skin with the tattoos. She could still tell that he had broken it several times and likely never seen a medical professional to have it set again. No, she quickly told herself, that wasn’t entirely true. A memory stirred of at least one occasion where Barney Ross had been aided properly…because her mother had been the one to tend to his hand.
> 
> Mickey had been only about eight years old at the time, and she had been curious to know what had happened to his hand. Why had her mother needed to fix it? Without batting an eye, Barney had told her that it had been an accident. He and Lee had been messing around with the punching bag and thought they would see who was tougher, so they had taken the gloves off. He didn’t tell her it was broken. Just that it was sore and he would need to rest it for a few days. And being the naïve child that she was, she had believed him without question.
> 
> Now she knew better.
> 
> “Lee’s never going to forgive you if you don’t wake up,” she whispered softly.
> 
> There was no response, not that she had been expecting one. A small sigh fluttered past her lips as Mikayla sat there, her eyes closing to try and fight off the feeling of weariness that was beginning to make itself known once more. Lifting a hand away from his she began to rub at her eyes, attempting to get them to focus again. She pinched the bridge of her nose. She gave her head a bit of a shake. But still the tears that had begun to build would not disappear.
> 
> “I’m sorry, Dad.”
> 
> “Not as sorry as I am, kid.”
> 
> Eyes shot up in an instant as the low rumble of his words sounded in her ears, the tears spilling down her cheeks unnoticed. He was still battered and bruised with one of his eyes swollen to the point that he couldn’t really open it. But the other was open slightly more. He was looking at her. He was awake.
> 
> Mikayla breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she scooted closer to him, pressing her hip into his side as she wiggled her way up the bed to look at her father a little more closely. “Christ, you scared me.”
> 
> The drugs were still heavy in his system, so Barney seemed to be a little unfocused as he tried to look at her, his fingers weakly squeezing her own as his head tilted toward the outstretched hand that brushed against his cheek. “We’ll call it even then.”
> 
> Swallowing the lump that was beginning to form in her throat, Mickey ducked her head a little. “How do you feel?”
> 
> “Heavy,” was his immediate response. “And tired.”
> 
> She nodded. “I don’t doubt it. You’ve been through a lot…the team is really worried about you.”
> 
> When Barney didn’t respond, Mickey quickly jumped on the silence. “Why don’t you get some rest, okay?” she murmured softly as she brushed her fingers against his forehead and down the one side of his face. “We can talk later, when you’re feeling up to it.”
> 
> It was obvious that their small conversation had been too much for him to handle, and the old man had fallen back into a restful sleep. Or so she hoped. It was entirely possible that his body had just fought for one last moment, but that was a notion she refused to entertain. The fact that he had been awake, if only for a moment, was enough to assure her that he was on the path to recovery.
> 
> When she heard the footsteps approaching the door, she could hardly contain herself. “Smilee, I think he’s going to be okay. He woke up for a second and-“
> 
> But the words stopped when she turned her head and saw the look on Smilee’s face, noting that he was no longer alone. Gunner and Doc had come into the room and now flanked either side of the bed, with a few nurses already in the hallway arguing with Drummer. The scene had poor Mickey scrambling to try and figure out what was happening as she watched them, feeling Doc’s gentle hands pry her away from Barney so that he could start talking to Gunner about how they were going to be moving him.
> 
> She staggered over toward the doorway, looking at Smilee with wide eyes. “What’s going on?”
> 
> “Church.” He spat the man’s name as if it were a poison itself. “Drummer thinks that he might have found him, and if he’s right then Church knows exactly where Barney is and that the two of you didn’t die in the explosion.”
> 
> “But, how-“
> 
> “I don’t know,” the man confessed quietly.
> 
> An arm snaked its way around her waist and gently pulled her to the side as the nurses hurried into the room, already beginning to communicate with Doc about how they were going to move him without causing him more harm. Mickey found herself held against Smilee’s chest, her hands pressed against the warmth of his front as she tried to make herself as small as possible. It didn’t occur to her where she was, or the fact that he still maintained a grip on her. So she didn’t try to move away as she normally would have.
> 
> Smilee looked toward Barney for a moment before letting his eyes drift back down to the woman he still held in his protective embrace. “Drummer has a safe house where we can go, with a hospital nearby for Barney to be treated at. He’ll have to go in under a different name…but he thinks it might buy us some time until we can get a better handle on where Church is.”
> 
> “The team?”
> 
> “They’re getting ready to leave. Luna’s back at the hangar with everyone else. She and Caesar will make sure we have everything we need.”
> 
> Mickey nodded slowly. “And us?”
> 
> Smilee looked at her for a moment before responding. “We go with Barney. We’ll be able to meet them at the safe house.”
> 
> “We’re going to the hospital with him,” she decided.
> 
> “Mickey-“
> 
> “Don’t,” she pleaded softly. “Don’t…please? He was awake Smilee. I swear, for just a few moments he was awake and talking to me. He’s making progress, and I’ll be damned if I leave him now when Church is standing on the threshold as a threat again.”
> 
> He seemed to regard her for several long moments before he breathed a heavy sigh. “Fine.” His grip around her tightened a little bit, his eyes firmly locked on hers. “But you aren’t to leave my side until we get there…understood?”
> 
> Mickey nodded in agreement. Without another word, Smilee had started to steer her out of the room and down toward the van that awaited them. Tool was already there, eyeing the two of them carefully before he allowed Smilee to tuck her into the back corner, wrapping her warmly in the sweater that he had been wearing before he stepped out again and waited for the nurses to help bring Barney downstairs. It was going to be a long journey, he knew. The threat from Church was all too real, and he didn’t like it for a single instant. At least she had agreed to stick close, he thought to himself. That had to count for something.
> 
> The last thing they needed was for Mickey to pull a fast one on them, like her old man had, and go after Church herself.


End file.
